Cloud Computing

So what is all the jazz about Cloud Computing?  Well in simplistic terms instead of purchasing actual server hardware to run your applications on, you are utilizing virtualized server environments.  Same security and domain rules can be applied, you can have your own company network for access to these servers, etc.  For companies where DR is important but without funds for a full-scale DR data center, etc. this could be a great way to go. 

Modern computing magazines, etc. have this pegged as the direction of the future for primary application environments as well but some companies don't like the risk of being on the bleeding edge and I can understand that.  But for firms that are running on 5-7 year old (or more) hardware that are looking to update their infrastructure this is something that should be looked at and considered along with other ASP type environments, traditional server environments, other virtualization products such as VMWare, etc.