The biggest problem around cloud computing is the lack of a valid and well accepted definition. Definitions like "scalable services delivered via the internet" fail for example when thinking about "private clouds" which aren't used via the internet (but at least based on using the same standards). And, by the way, not every cloud service will have to be highly scalable - there will be more and more very specialized services where functionality is key, not a massive scalability.
But the more you dive into the topic of cloud computing it becomes obvious that this cloudy thing of "cloud" (usually associated with the Internet and things which are provided there) isn't the key thing. The key to success is that companies understand the value of Cloud IT.
What does this mean? Cloud IT stands for consequently using cloud principles in IT - and in every part of IT, not only for consuming some external services. That includes
- well defined services (SLAs!!!)
- a consistent service management across all services, regardless of where they are running (and, based on that, consistent approaches to cloud governance)
- applications which are agnostic of where they are run or which hardware resources are available - there have to be parameters which might limit the ability to run applications everywhere and the application has to accept the currently available hardware resources but as well should understand that these resources can change dynamically