Google, a spanish bank, and the cloud

Google has persuaded Spanish bank BBVA to use it google apps service, 'hosted in the cloud'. This is a major leap for the the cloud. It's actually going to be put to the test on such large scale. According to BBC, "The deal is the biggest that the search giant has signed with one company for its cloud-computing services, where software is offered as a service via the internet." An interesting point to note, though, is that customer data and other key banking systems still stays in the banks data centres and is completely separate from the cloud solution.



I think that the so called cloud somehow ended up with the wrong name. But it has stuck and everybody is using it. I would rather use 'distributed computing'. The solution exists around buying and using offsite, secure, elastic computing, i.e., you pay for what you use. It does not necessarily have to be via the public Internet. A fact businesses handling sensitive information would appreciate. But isn't the google apps services for business based on a flat per user monthly rate?