Is Cloud Computing the Hotel California of Tech?

Prolific blogger and open source enthusiast Matt Asay ponders whether cloud computing may be the Hotel California of tech. It seems that data repositories in the form of Googles and Facebooks are very easy to dump data into, but can be quite difficult to move data between. "I say this because even for companies, like Google, that articulate open-data policies, the cloud is still largely a one-way road into Web services, with closed data networks making it difficult to impossible to move data into competing services. Ever tried getting your Facebook data into, say, MySpace? Good luck with that. Social networks aren't very social with one other, as recently noted on the Atonomo.us mailing list. For the freedom-inclined among us, this is cause for concern. For the capitalists, it's just like Software 1.0 all over again, with fat profits waiting to be had. The great irony, of course, is that it's all built with open source."

Comments

Facebook/Myspace != cloud computing

[Red Flayer]

In the masters chamber
They gather for the feast
They stab it with their steely knives
But the just can't kill the beast.

I didn't think MS did cloud computing?

Besides, when you say "cloud computing", about the last thing that would become likely would be "the warm smell of coitus".

So, no. Cloud Computing is not the Hotel California.

Maybe the Hot(el) (C)oral (Es)sex, but definitely not the Hotel California.

Seriously, though... Matt Asay is comparing cloud computing to Facebook/Myspace data? Very, very different beasts.