One of the biggest challenges facing Cloud Computing is the interoperation of the data. Applications like Microsoft Office have allowed us to use information stored in Outlook to create a letter in Word. We can insert spreadsheets in Word documents linking back to the original. Double Click on the spreadhseet and Excel opens. Cool.
But Cloud Computing does not give us that luxury. In most cases, your data sits in disparate locations, never the twain to meet. Wanna create a letter from your eMail program, copy and paste it. Sounds simple. Maybe for one letter. What about a mail merge? Ouch.
But Amazon and IBM have now joined forces. (http://news.cnet.com/8301-1001_3-10163603-92.html?tag=nl.e433). In case you do not know, Amazon does more than sell books. For years now, they have been providing the backend data storage for a number of companies providing us with online storage, backup, or data sharing services. IBM has been making a lot of noise about the Cloud. Their latest foray being the collaboration site: https://www.lotuslive.com/. And finally, two giants have joined forces ushering in, hopefully, more cooperation between Cloud Computing initiatives.
