Cloud Computing - A new name to 'Outsourcing'

I had been troubled by a question – Why cloud computing is suddenly getting so much of importance?

Technologies which form the building blocks of cloud computing existed for quiet some time now. Even cloud as a concept has been there for couple of years. Then why suddenly there is so much of hype? Today every IT organization is talking about cloud. Every IT service provider wants to embrace cloud mania and become a cloud service provider.

I feel that there definitely has to be something more than technology. One of my friend said that it is because of cost saving. I do agree that there could be significant cost savings but that would have always been there. If cost of components used for setting up an IT infrastructure or provisioning IT services has come down; it has come down for both the customer as well as service provider. So I do not agree that the sudden shift to cloud computing is because of the cost saving.

The cloud computing is gaining all the attention post the recent economic recession. Then, what could be the reason other than cost savings? If you have notices the economic and political scenario during and post recession, there has been huge hue and cry against off-shoring and outsourcing. Number of countries or states across Europe and America has taken up steps to come up with a legislation to ban the same. The focus on cloud has gained since then.

The answer to all these comes to my mind in form of a question – Is cloud computing another way of outsourcing that could be used to bypass the political or legislative stance of various governments?

Cloud computing is meant for real time provisioning of a cloud service to a customer without having the customer own the specific costs and risks. The customer is not aware of where the infrastructure is based. This fact further strengthens my belief.