Mary Jander has written a nice little post on Microsoft's Azure. To be clear, I do feel that we as an industry are moving toward platform based cloud computing such as Azure. But I also fear that we need a kind of intermediary environment where we can use a Window Cloud Edition within our own infrastructure and or use the MS cloud if we so choose. What is missing in most these platform plays is, how do I get my data if I want to leave? I haven't played much with Azure, but in the case of Googles App Engine it's tricky.
My Quote:
What does need to happen to make cloud computing more popular with enterprise IT? "A platform is kind of step two," says Reuven Cohen, co-founder at CTO at Enomaly, a developer of enterprise cloud computing software and a potential Azure competitor. "The first step is using the tools that they already have. So infrastructure as a service, once they're comfortable with that, the platform will be an easier sell."
I also wouldn't characterize Enomaly as potential Azure competitor. We're more of a supplement as in Vitamin C.
