Larry Ellison has never been one to mince words. Whether prodding rivals like Microsoft Corp. or IBM Corp. or SAP AG (which he often derisively pronounces as the kind of sap one would find in a tree) or firing salvos at his America's Cup sailing rivals, the swashbuckling CEO of enterprise software giant Oracle Corp. doesn't hold back. Yet mention cloud computing and the effect it might have on his company, and the man reacts with something bordering on apoplexy.

"Our industry is so bizarre -- they change the term and think they've invented technology," Ellison said at a Silicon Valley gathering last month. "Let's just call that the cloud -- it sure beats innovation."

"All it is is a computer attached to a network. What are you talking about? What do you think Google runs on? Water vapor?"

Ellison has good reason to get fired up. After all, the fuzzy term has become the tech buzzword du jour, with some pundits predicting it could replace the need for companies that offer hardware and enterprise software, like, say, Oracle. It has been bandied about and hyped to such an unprecedented extent that the term is as amorphous as, well, a cloud. Because of that, some venture capitalists have jumped happily on the bandwagon, and, as during the Internet bubble, some will be rewarded but even more won't.

"There are people who have funded companies that are in for a rude awakening," says Stephen Elliot, vice president of strategy for CA Inc.'s infrastructure management and automation business unit.

The term "cloud" has been used as a metaphor for the Internet for decades, probably derived from how the World Wide Web is depicted as a cloud in diagrams of computer networks. A simple definition of cloud computing shared by many is the ability to use computing resources over the Internet from a third party without having to buy new servers or software or hire new employees. Much like another tech buzzword, "virtualization," which enables several operating systems to function on one machine, the notion of cloud computing is compelling in its ability to let enterprises obtain computing power as needed.

For CA, a major supplier of software and services that help companies manage their IT systems, the definition doesn't matter too much, Elliot says.

"When I talk to two or three of our service-provider customers, I get two or three definitions of cloud computing," he says. "Let Gartner or Forrester define it. The net of it is that many of our customers are deploying projects that enable the automation of physical or virtual compute resources, and we want to help them manage the availability and security of those resources."

Indeed, whatever one calls it, there is money to be made in this nascent area. CA is supplying a range of software that enables, manages and secures computing in "the cloud." The hype is serving some purpose, Elliot says, because large companies that aren't using these kinds of technologies are starting to think about it.

"At many enterprise accounts, the CEO is asking the CIO: 'What is our cloud strategy?' They've read about it and heard the hype about it," he says.

"The multibillion-dollar question is how big is it going to get, and when will IT departments view it as a truly viable option?" Elliot says. With its push to supply enterprises with the tools to tap into the cloud, CA has been looking to the growing community of venture-backed startups in this area for new technologies.

In 2005, the New York-based company, which was still known as Computer Associates International Inc., took a big step forward in its cloud offerings by acquiring Concord Communications Inc. for $350 million. The deal brought with it critical Internet-based network management technology used largely by telecommunications-service providers, well before the cloud-computing term had taken hold.

More recently, CA last month announced the acquisition of NetQoS Inc., which makes network performance management software, for $200 million, and the assets of VC-backed Cassatt Corp., a data center automation startup, for undisclosed terms in June.

"There is a level of confusion about cloud computing, but the net is that this will take hold," Elliot says.

Other big technology companies are taking a similar interest. Google Inc. CEO Eric Schmidt recently said his company is interested in acquiring cloud-computing technology, and Sun Microsystems Inc. bought data center provisioning software startup Q-layer NV earlier this year for undisclosed terms.

And with Oracle's pending $7.4 billion purchase of Sun, whatever Ellison believes about this hyped sector, he's about to own a little piece of it himself.