not counting what your " local" ISP is going to charge you on top of that for

per gigabyte for incoming data and 15 cents per gigabyte for outgoing data.

so ..I see a bright future in selling flashlights to CEO's who have lost the plot ..and could use some light to find both it and their rear ends ..because apparently two hands just aint enough ..

charging the end user to use your "cloud" service ( as opposed to paying for it by ads ) isn't going to fly long term ..

( listen we have this ..hitherto ..flaky system ..where you trust us with your data and you pay us and if we crash you cant even get it back..now trust us ..we have a track record second to none of invulnerability to hacks and exploits ..snicker from the gallery and many "'stans" ..and here is our price list )

I can hear the class action reptiles fighting for place front and center for a peice of the action as soon as one single cluster tip can be shewn to have been lost/ compromised/ hacked ..whatever the TOS say ..

and all of the folks that used to code for their governments ( in places where the town name or your own surname gets you triple word score in scrabble ) and now have only their dogs to walk to pass the time ..saying that would be interesting to break ..and we may even ( certainly will ) get paid to do so ..

'less this is chapter 2 in the "buy this av" and thus pay to fix the ( deliberate ..well one has to wonder ) holes in our crap app ..the TOS is going to have to be worthy of Orwell at his doublespeak best /worst dream ...or maybe MS will just get the same "pass" that they got for selling vista and me as "fit for purpose"

( i'm currently fighting vista64 on 3 machines as admin ..with UAC disabled and it still says that i dont have permission to access my own docs, music,photos etc via their own shortcut ..and yes it can be hacked ..have done so ....But #*$! should I have to ..but imagine having to do that because "the cloud" thinks you dont have "permissions" to access your own tax returns ..and it( MS) and your ISP make you pay to be locked out of your own files unless you know how to rewrite stuff that you shouldn't have to ...)

it's like your car wont start cos you had your hair cut ....and you have to stick it back on your head ..and get the dog to vouch for you before you can open the hood ..

"cloud" ..the next con being pushed from the valley ..so when it doesnt work the app hoster and your local ISP can play pass the parcel ..and all the time on your paid for "hotline/support" dime ..

NO WAY ..

I know where you're coming from, but I can also see where this will be a welcome up-sell on the corporate side. They'll push it the same way managed hosting or backup is now. I don't have the impression that this is a product that will be targeting the consumer market. They're not pushing it that way in any event.

I like my backups where I can touch them ..second on the servers ..third in another DC ..

yes some may well treat it like managed boxes ..or off site backups ..but depending on someone other than yourself to get fed / security or the means to get fed / security etc ..is not a sensible strategy for any organism ..

MS arent pushing their offer that way ..yet ( after all they have 7 to shift and 8 and ..etc etc ..but G sure are pushing the thin client OS ) ..and would any sensible corporate client want to to be any more hostage to the ineptitudes of bored code drones than they already are ..?

anyone in charge of IT who lets critical data of any kind exist only offsite ( as in cloud )should be pushing a broom ..it's like giving your heart pills to the local grocery store to keep safe because they know how to sell apples ..and they say they'll be there for you every morning on your way to the office ..

then the grocer gets mild flu and doesnt open for 24 hours ..you die ..he just misses a day ..

Interesting trend, though.

I ancient times, we connected to "mainframes" at remote locations because the hardware was too expensive for small companies to buy/maintain/upgrade.

Then minicomputers (and later PCs) became cheap, so companies gobbled them up to get more/cheaper computing power.

But then the corporate profit margins shrunk due to global competition, the labor costs to administer/secure/maintain in-house computers and networks increased, and bandwidth got much more widely available and cheaper.

So now the "dumb terminals" of yore will replaced by thin clients, and the mainframes will become "cloud servers."

So here we go 'round again...

Jim