On Cloud Computing

Cloud computing relies upon virtual machines to meet the elastic demands of network processing. Need another server? Instantiate another virtual machine.

But a virtual machine is just a file, a file that contains every bit required to represent the main memory of an actual computer--an operating system, an application, and some data. Then, in the ultimate case of code-generation, a program branches to that file and immediately begins to behave as a separate computer, the computer defined by that file.

Similarly, a book is just a file. When the brain reads the text in that file, the interpreter that is the mind branches to the code in the file and executes it as though it is a separate mind, the mind defined by that book.

The question, then, is this:

What analogy exists in the virtual private cloud?