Like client-server computing in the early 1990s, Java in the mid-1990s and e-business in the late 1990s, cloud computing is the buzz IT phrase of this era.

Hailed as the panacea for all IT ailments starting from ballooning IT infrastructure costs to the shortage of talented IT workers, cloud computing is supposed to take us to the promised land of lower costs, faster time to market and infinite storage and processing power when we want it.

The folks at McKinsey recently looked at cloud computing and among other things made the following two key points:

* Clouds already make sense for many small and medium-size businesses, but technical, operational and financial hurdles will need to be overcome before clouds will be used extensively by large public and private enterprises.

* Rather than create unrealizable expectations for “internal clouds,” CIOs should focus now on the immediate benefits of virtualizing server storage, network operations, and other critical building blocks.

 Bottomline, McKinsey is not as gungho on cloud computing as some of its peers.