Today, Cloud Computing has become one of the most hotly spoken about topics in most IT seminars and CIO circles. In last 4-5 years, most large internet companies in the US and elsewhere have stoked the Cloud Computing story and have tried very hard to convince "not so large" companies how it makes sense to them. Interestingly, these same companies were equally adroit in telling the same customers benefits of their own data-centers and inhouse infrastructure.

Sometimes I feel that what is happening in cyberspace is not unlike what is happening in "brick and mortor" space. Large companies are simply constructing "Infrastructure" or trying to sell their "unused" capacity for which they have no utilization plans of their own. Amazons, Microsofts and Yahoos of the world seem to have lost it when it comes to providing thought and technology leadership. This role is being increasingly provided by proponents of Open Source Software across the world. Large technology companies have become barren farmlands without any real commitment towards their customers' problems and solving them. But putting out their own infrastructure on the block, they are simply doing what DLFs, Unitechs and other real estate companies are doing in "brick and mortor" world.