You've figured out how to purchase virtual servers with virtual money, too?

We often forget that even with all the advances with technology when it is deployed in an enterprise things get messy.  Most budgets are 'funny money' -- numbers on paper that can be tweaked as needed to meet resource, schedule, and infrastructure priorities over the life of the project.  What's more, the fallacies of distributed computing prove themselves time and again. 

Take the (mystical) "cloud", for example.  Most enterprises are going to build their own, or partner with on of the big players to implement a 'private cloud'.  Cha-ching!  What's more, the cost and time required to migrate an enterprise level application, let alone the complexity involved changing existing business processes and policies to live on new infrastructure at the scale they require is often mind-boggling. 

Don't get me wrong, my life with virtual hardware has gotten far easier and I wouldn't go back in a second. I do, however, appreciate the cost and complexity it takes to get there.