Cloud computing heralds an evolution of business that is no less influential than e-business. Gartner maintains that the very confusion and contradiction that surrounds the term 'cloud computing' signifies its potential to change the status quo in the IT market. Gartner analysts who will be presenting at the Web Innovation Summit have just released a special report on cloud computing.

Here are some highlights from the report:

Darryl Plummer: "During the past 15 years, a continuing trend toward IT industrialization has grown in popularity as IT services delivered via hardware, software and people are becoming repeatable and useable by a wide range of customers and service providers. This is due, in part to the commoditization and standardization of technologies, in part to virtualization and the rise of service-oriented software architectures, and most importantly, to the dramatic growth in popularity of the Internet. Taken together, these three major trends constitute the basis of a discontinuity that will create a new opportunity to shape the relationship between those who use IT services and those who sell them. Essentially it will mean that users of IT-related services will be able to focus on what the service provides them rather than how the services are implemented or hosted. Gartner maintains that although names for this type of operation have come into vogue at different times – utility computing, software as a service (SaaS) and application service providers – none has garnered widespread acceptance as the central theme for how IT-related services can be delivered globally."

David Mitchell Smith: "The focus has moved up from the infrastructure implementations and onto the services that allow for access to the capabilities provided. Although many companies will argue how the cloud services are implemented, the ultimate measure of success will be how the services are consumed and whether that leads to new business opportunities."

David Cearley: "Gartner predicts that the impact of cloud computing on IT vendors will be huge. Established vendors have great presence in traditional software markets and as new Web 2.0 and cloud business models evolve and expand outside of consumer markets a great deal could change. "The vendors are at very different levels of maturity. The consumer-focused vendors are the most mature in delivering what Gartner calls a 'cloud/Web platform' from technology and community perspectives, but the business-focused vendors have rich business services and, at times, are very adept at selling business services."

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