Chris Poelker of Computerworld defines Cloud computing in his post as “simply a way to describe how organizations can take some or all of their existing IT infrastructure and operations and hand it over to someone else to build or manage, so the internal core team can focus on new ways to help the business at hand, rather than becoming experts in building servers, managing storage, or protecting data”.
His description is limited to infrastructure (perhaps unintentional); not business solutions and processes that span the enterprise. He says “The actual impact of cloud on IT is outsourcing”, which in some respects is true. If IT organizations view Cloud computing as outsourcing infrastructure and operations then you should ask the question are they in the right frame of mind internally as well as in a position of influence with business leaders to focus on helping the business? In other words, moving the core team to focus on helping the business may not be as simple as adopting Cloud computing but requiring transformation as well.
Read Chris’s definition of cloud computing as he describes in layman’s terms and see what you think; Defining Cloud Computing.