A couple of weeks ago, I was a guest on Cloud Chasers, an Internet radio show dedicated to exploring the hype around cloud computing. This was my second visit to the show. You can listen to my first visit here, and my most recent visit here.

After my first appearance on Cloud Chasers, I blogged about the evolution of communication and how internet radio was an great way to use an old medium (radio) in a new format, thanks to the advances of technology. My co-panelist this time was Chirag Mehta (@chirag_mehta) from SAP, where is the cloud computing strategist. You should definitely follow him on Twitter if you're interested in anything cloud-related.

One of the ideas that I advocated on the show was the idea that the cloud is going to be a great big library in the sky for applications. In many respects, the cloud is going to be the next evolution of the public library, or the electric company. Let me explain.

The big promise behind cloud computing is that it moves all of the resources for enterprise IT off-site, and the enterprise needs to pay only for what it consumes. You can rent an application by the minute, by the hour, by the day, by the month. However, most CIOs want to limit the number of vendors with whom they relationships. CIOs want fewer throats to choke, because while you are renting the application, you are putting your sensitive data – in many cases, the crown jewels of your enterprise – in the cloud. So you want to make sure that you can trust the cloud vendor with your data and you'll want to set up security protocols, service level agreements, and a tight identity integration.

Which means that you will have three or four cloud vendors with whom you'll do business. When our friendly CIO is selecting cloud vendors, one of his criteria will be who has the largest selection of library books, or applications. If a cloud provider has a lot of applications, then it will be worth it for the CIO to set up the process, security and management integration points with that cloud vendor. And then just like an electric utility, the CIO will only pay for the hours that he uses the application, or reads the proverbial "book."

That's why there is a rush now for ISVs to make their applications ready for the cloud. They need to cloud enable their applications and then get them deployed in as many libraries as possible. And for the cloud vendors, there's a race on to see who will accumulate the most library books. Because if you accumulate the most library books, then you will have the most customers who want to come to your library.

Agree? Disagree? Listen to the Cloud Chasers podcast, and then leave your comments below.