Criticism of the term

During a video interview, Forrester Research VP Frank Gillett expresses criticism about the nature of and motivations behind the push for cloud computing. He describes what he calls "cloud washing" in the industry whereby companies relabel their products as cloud computing resulting in a lot of marketing innovation on top of real innovation. The result is a lot of overblown hype surrounding cloud computing. Gillett sees cloud computing as revolutionary in the long term but over-hyped and misunderstood in the short term, representing more of a gradual shift in our thinking about computer systems and not a sudden transformational change.

Larry Ellison, CEO of Oracle Corporation has stated that cloud computing has been defined as "everything that we already do" and that it will have no effect except to "change the wording on some of our ads". Oracle Corporation has since launched a cloud computing center and worldwide tour. Forrester Research Principal Analyst John Rymer dismisses Ellison's remarks by stating that his "comments are complete nonsense and he knows it".

Richard Stallman said that cloud computing was simply a trap aimed at forcing more people to buy into locked, proprietary systems that would cost them more and more over time. "It's stupidity. It's worse than stupidity: it's a marketing hype campaign", he told The Guardian. "Somebody is saying this is inevitable – and whenever you hear somebody saying that, it's very likely to be a set of businesses campaigning to make it true."