“Mu.” Who owns the IP address, and what hardware that resolves through and to, are highly decoupled. The latter may be widely distributed; that’s part of what the whole cloud concept is about.
A host is a host, from coast to cost
And no one will talk to a host that's close
Unless the host that isn't close
Is busy, hung, or dead...
(To the tune of the Mr. Ed theme song.)
