Calculating the real cost of cloud computing

This week I have been getting unpleasantly confused by a pre-Christmas present of cloud computing hype. Take the Cebr 2011 Cloud Dividend report, commissioned by EMC, which joyfully predicts that the cloud will benefit the European economy by as much as £148.9 billion per year by 2015. Other highlights include the cloud creation of 289,000 jobs in the same timeframe, although the UK could apparently lag behind the rest of Europe courtesy of our relatively poor broadband infrastructure.