This week the latest CEO to wade in on the debate on cloud computing is salesforce.com's Marc Benioff who's come out fighting against private cloud - the use of applications served from a company's own datacentre, or server space they own or rent.

He would of course! Because it's not the model of cloud computing salesforce.com is trying so hard to sell. But by battling a form of cloud computing which clearly offers huge benefits to end users, simply because it makes him no money, Benioff is sounding more and more like a turkey bemoaning the benefits of Christmas.

Regular Loop readers recognise that the private cloud offers users the ease of access to applications, the ability to mobilise their workforce and yet the control over their data and application stack that have held back many users from cloud adoption.

Salesforce.com talks about flexibility. But how flexible is a service that will house your data anywhere - as long as it's in the US? Businesses will always need a hybrid solution that will increasingly include applications served remotely, whether from their own datacentre, which is unlikely for small firms, or from space within somebody else's. Likewise there remain applications best served on-premise.

The danger with anybody coming out and telling everybody else what the dictionary definition of cloud computing should be is that it merely muddies the waters. In Marc Benioff's case he's muddying those waters so he can go hunting for personal gain in them.