Cloud computing is for the birds

Cloud computing is all the rage and being heavily promoted by the likes of Google and Microsoft. Well, forget about it. At least that's the view of Larry Ellison, the chief executive of Oracle. At the company's annual meeting last Friday, Ellison told shareholders  that the technology is a fad that lacks a clear business model.

"I think it's ludicrous that cloud computing is taking over the world," Ellison said "We think it's very hard to make money in this thing."

Ellison said open source and software-as-a-service technologies were hyped up a few years ago, but neither have become multi-billion-dollar industries.

Ellison said Oracle might lease space in the cloud that lets companies and consumers store data on the Internet rather than in networks of computers, but he said the company will go no further.

"I'm not going to build the cloud," Ellison said. "It's the Webvan of computing."

For more about cloud computing as a fad:
- check out this forbes.com article

Related Article:
Richard Stallman: Cloud computing is a trap