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Cloud utility is like mass transport. At certain points in history and specific regions / situations, resource constraints made trains / buses ascendant. But the personal car has not gone away, and neither will the standalone PC or server. When gas is expensive, more people take the bus. When storage & processing power (and for that matter, the space and electrical power behind it) is expensive, more people use utility. When storage, processing, and data center space / power are dirt cheap, more people are ok with spending a bit extra on standalone machines.

But besides cost, there are many reasons why people buy and drive cars - it's a form of self-expression, a hobby, and a thrill of being in control. The hobby / thrill aspects are relevant to what we call the "server-hugger" - someone who won't even outsource the data center or won't put it more than 10 minutes' drive away without a good reason. And that's something that has little place in well-run IT. But the parallel to self-expression through cars is competitive advantage through IT - like the customers we have that are paying a premium to put their servers within a few milliseconds of electronic exchanges they're trading on. Mass-produced utility compute grids won't be good enough for them any more than a bus will be good enough for a Porsche owner.