I’ve come to the realization that “cloud” is nothing more that a confusing marketing term, but a powerful one that captures the attention of press, media, and the vendor community. In most cases, the current cloud messaging isn’t even in alignment with ongoing IT priorities. “Cloud” is used to define a strategic vision and theorize the opportunity of next generation data centers. Try putting yourself in the shoes of IT operations and going to the IT director or CIO and telling them you need a cloud. 1) The term “cloud” has no single meaning so you will spin your wheels trying to explain what it is 2) I’m willing to bet that a large majority of IT professionals already think what they are currently doing is cloud and 3) try explaining to a CIO the cost of cloud… good luck!

In any case, I’m attending VMworld 2009 this week and, for better or worse, there is sure to be plenty of cloudspeak—and the games have already begun. Citrix, well really Xen.org, just announced Xen Cloud. I’m not crazy enough to think everyone is going stop their virtualization initiatives in their tracks and get themselves ready to stand up a Xen Cloud, but the concept and the potential strength behind the concept is intriguing. Perhaps most interestingly is the approach to incorporating infrastructure into the platform that is very Google like in terms of leveraging hardware as opposed to requiring highly integrated server, networking, and storage components like the leading virtualization providers.

You can also see what I had to say in a recent Forbes article.

More blogs to come from VMworld this week and you can also follow me on Twitter: markbowker