Microsoft's (MSFT) turn to join the cloud game. The company today announced a deal with Amazon (AMZN) to run Windows Server on the Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2). A smart move for Redmond. Cloud computing mania may be overhyped (per Larry Ellison), but it is real. And if companies really take to the notion of abandoning their own data centers to relocate operations into the cloud, Microsoft can't cede that momentum to non-Windows (UNIX) applications. Starting today, Microsoft's sales people can tell enterprise customers: "You're into cloud computing? Windows Server can do that."
Redmond's database SQL Server will be supported too. Looks like a direct shot at database rival Oracle (ORCL), which announced support for Amazon's EC2 just last week.
So far, the only timeframe we have for availability is "later this fall."
See also:
Larry Ellison: Someone Explain To Me This "Cloud Computing" Thing My Company Is Committing To
Open Source Guru Richard Stallman: Cloud Computing "Worse Than Stupidity"
Besides, Larry Ellison talking the same talk as Richard Stallman dissing cloud computing doesn't really make for a very compelling argument or company.
Read the fine print. Ellison is trashtalking the cloud as a gimmick -- Stallman thinks it will lock people into proprietary software.
Point is that they're on the same side in dissing the concept and essentially talking the same thing. TomatoE to tomatO...