How new is the cloud?

Summary form only given. Cloud computing has been identified by Gartner as one of the ten most disruptive technologies for the next decade. It has made many promises and the first products have appeared on the market place and are rapidly gaining adoption. Time to step back a bit. This talk first gives an overview of the promises made by cloud computing. Which promises really matter? Which promises were only made because they could be fulfilled? And, which promises were only made because they could not be validated? Second, this talk discusses the fundamental limitations, light-housed by the CAP theorem. How bad is it really? Third, this talk discusses alternative architectures for data management in the cloud. What works? What is new? Fourth, this talk addresses the changes application programmers will face. What is realistic? Finally, this talk reports on three years of running a cloud computing start-up. What do users like, what do investors like? What do I like?