Defining cloud computing

Ask a dozen people what "cloud computing" means and you'll get a dozen different answers, all pointing to the network. Rob Boothby of Joyent interviewed more than a dozen technology wonks, including Steve Gillmor, Matt Mullenweg, Tim O'Reilly, Kevin Marks, Rafe Needleman, Stowe Boyd, Brian Solis and myself, at the Web 2.0 Expo, to answer the question, "What is Cloud Computing ?"

Check out the responses in this video:

[AaronRowe]

That video is brilliant. Asking lots of experts the same broad question and getting a bunch of very different answers is such a great way to create thought provoking content. My favorite answer came from O'Riley.

[AaronRowe]

That video is brilliant. Asking lots of experts the same broad question and getting a bunch of very different answers is such a great way to create thought provoking content. My favorite answer came from O'Riley.

[Frank Mlinar]

A published transcript would be helpful for those of us that are hard of hearing.

[Norseman]

So. Cloud = internet. OK. I get it.

[Norseman]

Excuse the multiple posts. The "new, improved" system tripped me up!

[kwatson49]

Love this video. Cloud Computing to me is running my business with my laptop, on the beach in Mexico, beer in hand and not stressing about keeping the lights on!

[Tony McCune]

I recently took a stab at defining what cloud computing is not:
http://tmccune.blogspot.com/2008/04/stop-meshing-with-cloud-computing.html

[Toughs]

I am very happy to see so many people that can talk about cloud computing without actually telling us what it is. Cloud computer is a group of computers that store all data redundantly and can share resources among the machines. If one of these servers fail, it doesn't matter because all of the data is redundantly stored around the rest of the "cloud" or group of servers there is virtually zero downtime.