The cloud will certainly become like the power utility providers, or phone companies from which we will buy our services. My only quibble is that it is probably wrong to believe that the cloud 'per se' is already intrinsically secure and reliable. My advice to any pioneers would be to look at the label. Some Cloud providers have invested a huge effort into providing a resilient and secure infrastructure, and others haven't. The people with the job of implementing the vision still haven't quite caught up with the marketing hyperbole. We've been sold a dream which will certainly soon become a reality, but not quite yet.

The doubts I've expressed in this editorial about the cloud as it exists today is in addition to the concerns I've had already about the suitability of the cloud for financial data in view of the existing legislation. http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/Editorial/70095/