Yeah well....if Azure ends up as clunky and annoying as Office Live Workspace or Windows Live SkyDrive it's doomed to failure.

We all need to remember that "clouds" are made up of water VAPOR...as in vaporware...

This one going down the same way as most, well, if not all, MS web based programs have so far. Total failure, short lived, replaced real soon with a new name and a new alpha software that really doesn't work either. It might even be free at first, just to suck you in and suck you dry later. Beware!

They can't beat Google, they never will. Google is about good software that works. Not about profits first, which is all that Microsoft and its paid commentators are about. If only MS could code. Somewhere they seemed to have lost that ability, but where, and when? And when was it that MSFT lost the reason to protect its Windows users from all the Malware that Chips keeps writting about? Is it that MSFT has lost its way? It is time for a change.

Think Voip and you see where this cloud idea is going and it is not great for Microsoft it is the netbook market all over again.

Notice that ISP's offer voip if you use the ISP's voip it don't count to your download quota and even in some cases it does not even effect the download speed you paid for.

Really Voip was the first cloud application. Business software will need a lot more bandwidth than Voip so ISP's win.

Other issue Linux developers have been releasing cloud applications for years. Lot of ISP's run Linux so hello competition.

Worst part is ISP's could afford to give cloud to there users for nothing. Reason they want to keep there broadband contracts.

MS worse nightmare having to be at a table with millions of users with another option controlled by a very tight fisted person.

I still think Windows WoT (Waste of Time) would have been more appropriate. I wonder how much of an underpowered, bloated dog this creation will be.

I see that another large organization are as excited over Azure as MS is. The Naples government has now joined the list of open source converts.

By my reckoning then, in recent months we've seen:
Russian schools move over, Naples Government, Brazil adopting Linux in the mainstream. We've had so much lack of interest in the "open" conference in Australia when MS announced they were in attendance that the event was canceled due to lack of registrations.
Looks like MS is really on the ball doesnt it?
and then how can we forget Redhat being threatened by MS with patients? That just shows how worried IMO MS are when the two products are compared. The only way MS can tackle Linux is through attempted legal battles. Maybe if the MS product was better in the first place, they wouldnt need to?
What MS dont seem to realize is that by threatening legal action to companies like Redhat, it further brings exposure to the fact that they must have something better to offer than MS or else why would MS bother?

I believe "the hand" to be correct, and this is another expensive little project that is doomed from the outset (IMO) even if Azure is the best thing since the discovery of fire, public perception and distrust of MS (IMO) will stop it being a success anyway.
One things for sure, as I said in previous posts, it wont be going anywhere near my system, I spent years getting burnt by MS and I wont be returning. (Not by choice anyway)

and as Ive also said before, I think MS's problems started when MS tried to adopt the "jack of all trades" policy and ended up as "master of none" (IMO)

Microsoft always makes their product marketing way too complicated. From what I can work out, Microsoft have managed to build a Google-like datacenter and are going to use it to host a service much like Amazon EC3 or Google Apps.

I think that the licensing and price is going to be critical, how are their existing partners going to feel if their customers go with Azure instead of buying licenses from them? I cannot see Microsoft making the price competitive enough without decimating their server profits and/or killing off their partners. The devil will be in the details.

I expect we will see lockin sooner or later, either with poor performance on non-MS operating systems or by making sure that MS is ahead of the curve on their own 'standards'. The IT market is too sophisticated to fall for that again.

Well... I'm sorry cloud computing equals outsourcing. Outsourcing your data means someone ( NOT YOU ) has your data and just lets you look at it or get it in small pieces. Same is true with google. Try uploading 1000 documents to your google docs account and then be able to download them all at once. Or how about write adhoc queries against your data? What about the storaqe paradigms... why don't we need to know these?

Well... giving away your data is suicide in my opinion. An ad agency and potential direct competitor (Microsoft for example often gets ideas from the little guy then steam rolls them) you're going to let these people you don't know have your most secret data? Oh... not all your data? Well... No thanx. I know when I look for a job I get background checks, need credentials, need proof of talent, get interrogated on the phone, in person.... but are we going to just hand over our most valuable commodity...DATA... to these corporate giants... who don't even answer the telephone? Does google even have a phone? Have you seen their contact us page? LOL...

All in all... Open Source, Linux, etc... these are the things that make me smile.

This cloud stuff reminds me of the USA constitution... The right to bear arms.... if we give away that right, we are helpless against the powers that be... right?

--JAson