Originally Posted by handsonhosting

You should include Instances in your list also. Remember a TRUE REDUNDANT cloud will be in multiple data centers.

For me, I see too many hosting companies attempting to run their own cloud, or offer cloud hosting, and operate out of a single data center facility. YES it likely does satisfy the requirements to be "cloud" but really, the purpose is to have instances in various parts of the world to serve the data faster. it certainly costs more to do this, but when you're dealing with enterprise sites, you get what you pay for.

I don't pretend to know all about the cloud - it's too new and seems to be more "concepts" to many places than anything else. So I'll be watching the thread to see what other insights I can glean. I've read many (too many) articles and whitesheets on Cloud Hosting and no sooner do you put it down, than another is released contradicting it