Cloud/Grid/Utility Computing

I was reading Micheal Specht's blog Cloud/Grid/Utility Computing what is it & must you have it? and It got me thinking, it is true that the various buzzwords that the industry offers up can sometimes be confusing, however, maybe it would help if we boil it down to bare essentials.

When Micheal and I caught up recently we had a long discussion that centered around these decisions being horses for courses - what is the best architecture for your application? Try to see through the buzzwords - whether it be cloud, utility, or SaaS or whatever. What is the underlying architecture and most importantly can it deliver for your respective application on the following criteria to the degree that you need:

1. Performance
2. Business Continuity (i.e., back-up and recovery)
3. Security, privacy and compliance
4. Service Level Agreements
5. Business Integration and processes
6. Affordability

That is what is important. What the solution is ultimately called is not important as long as you are getting the computing resources you need, when you need them at a price point that suits.