IMHO, I think Nick Carr is off base on a few of his predictions. Although I agree in the idea of on-premise computing some day vanishing I don’t agree that there will only be a hand full of vendors running them. More likely there will be an eco system of large-medium-small connected cloud/utility solutions.
Therefore I am hoping the glass is half full today after yesterdays Google announcement. I am hoping that now the local python extremist’s will start getting as excited about cloud/utility computing as IMHO, the PHP crowd has been and we will see even more opportunities and advancements in the late-great-cloud-utility-extravaganza.
We will see.
Thanks John

Alternatively, I wonder what the business model will be that begins to lock out the little guys, ala The Big Switch’s observation that for every move that opens up the web, there seems to be a counter move that locks in advantage for the established players. Pricing (for extra capacity) perhaps? Cost of getting Google’s attention for an acquisition play?