First, the application ran on a computer, isolated. Second, the application ran on a computer, had its back end on a server and information was shared. Then the application ran on as a web page, on a server. What’s next?  The application runs on the cloud. So is the cloud an evolution of the second phase of the application’s evolution, or the third phase?  Is the cloud a collection of resources or is the cloud a way an application behaves? Google is betting one way.  VMware the other.