The Domain Name System (DNS) gives a human interface to the very complicated Internet numbering and addressing system.  DNS allows you to type www.yahoo.com , rather than the Internet address 69.147.114.224, or even worse, one of the new Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPv6) addresses that might look like 2001:db8:1f70::999:de8:7648:6e8.

Paul Mockapetris, founder of DNS and email, addressed the problem of providing DNS services in a virtual environment during a speech at Interop Las Vegas 2009.  While virtualizing DNS in a cloud might appear to be a daunting task, Mr. Mockapetris believes that "it won't take too long for cloud domain naming to become standardized, because after all everthing will still run under TCP/IP - the standard Internet protocol."

DNS becomes tricky in a cloud environment, as domain naming is bound to a specific user or company.  www.yahoo.com cannot be used by Google or Microsoft, as it is owned by Yahoo.  The same goes for the cryptic IP addresses - as they are provisioned to a specific user.