It became clear that this would happen in the early days. Cloud became the thing to do and vendors of file servers started coming to me trying to sell me a "Private Cloud". Of course this was really just the same file server, sometimes without even any virtualisation on it. Later, as it became clear that internet connection speeds could not yet support centralisation of everything, the "Hybrid cloud" appeared. I.e. the best of both worlds, yet actually just a cloud and a non cloud service.
For me the clear difference between a cloud service and a non cloud service is scalability. With true cloud services you can add and subtract the number of people using it and the costs for using the service also go up or down in proportion. Nobody ever tells you that you need to wait while new equipment is acquired or that there is not capacity. The one caveat is you use the cloud as you find it, you cannot have anything they currently do no supply. It may come later, but it will not be created for you.
This is not true of "Private cloud" and outsourced services once you reach capacity you will need a significant investment to add the one more person. You can have it customised to any form of functionality that you require, but this is just the hook that will keep you paying and keep you away from true cloud.
Both Cloud and not cloud are valid, there are commodity services that you will use the cloud for and other services that add key business value or USP and you will keep those in house. These may even be developed yourself. The truth is it just isn't necessary to give these vital in house services a "cloud" moniker to keep the CEO happy.
With a more binary view perhaps people would be less confused and get the right value out of both ways of providing services.
