Cloud computing explained

I've been asked a lot more recently about "Cloud Computing" and especially how Microsoft is playing in this area, I'll link to the articles when they come out.  In the meantime David Chappell has written a nice summary of the current state of cloud computing platforms and describes some of Microsoft's work in this area.  The paper is very focused on the enterprise aspects of cloud computing but remember that Microsoft has a huge array of assets in this area including ones that consumers can use today with the Live offerings and the Mesh platform. 

Biztalk Services is already available for use and does a great job of managaing identity in the cloud for developers. SQL Server Data Services (SSDS) gives developers on demand storage with the ability to query the stored data, available in beta. There's lots for developers to play with already but look for a lot more exciting developer oriented could computing announcements at PDC this year.