The answer is – they don’t. At least they don’t buy “the Cloud” per se; they buy a solution that solves a problem and this may involve the delivery of services from a hosted platform via the internet.

I believe in 12 months the term will be ubiquitous not with the way the services are delivered, but the benefits it brings, just as a hoover is not known necessarily for its inner workings (although people know it sucks dirt) but the fact that it helps keep their carpets clean.