Spot on Steve.

We haven't made a commitment to the cloud as yet but vendor lock-in is a major consideration.

It has to be said that Microsoft have made a huge investment in Azure. Within the EU Amazon has a datacentre in Ireland but Microsoft have invested both in Ireland and in Holland.

Connor Cunningham's keynote at SQL Bits was predominantly SQL Azure.

It has to be said that each cloud vendor has some form of vendor lock-in. The framework and APIs of their services are similar but not the same. Eventually the cloud will evolve to provide commodity computing in the same way that the energy companies provide electricity. You don't have to rewire your house every time you change electricity provider!

Taking the analogy further, in Britain electricity generation preceded the standardisation of electrical plugs by a good 25 years!