The 'Clouds' don't look like blowing over...

Following on from one of Marks previous posts, it will come as no surprise to most people to see Microsoft getting in on the 'Cloud' computing scene, albeit later than some may have expected!

Google and Adobe have, for some time, been offering web versions of popular software tools, and now Microsoft look set to follow, with Windows Azure (http://www.microsoft.com/azure/windowsazure.mspx) set to be released alongside Windows 7, and online versions of their popular Office products, such as Word and Excel (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7772869.stm) also on the horizon.

This is a step forward from their existing Office Live Workspace (http://workspace.officelive.com) which already lets you store and share documents online.

Of course there is no such thing as the 'Cloud' in reality, everything has to be stored somewhere, and processed by computers linked together across a network, leading to possible and very real technical issues! Not to mention the issues surrounding data protection, and the laws within which the hosting providers have to operate.

Some of those 'Clouds' might be a bit grey and stormy...