When back in 2001, Microsoft announced a project codenamed hailstorm, which set its goal to make MSN-hosted user data available to the same users at non-Microsoft web sites, it was flooded with criticism. Everyone saw it as the evil empire trying to take more control. Unsurprisingly the project was never released. By comparison, Windows Azure relinquishes much more control over users’ data to Microsoft, yet you don’t see anyone protesting, on the contrary, you’ve got quite a number of excited parties. Why is that?

Two reasons stand out. One is timing. Right now Microsoft has a much better public image when compared to 2001. Back then "it was the evil empire against Java and open source," says analyst Peter O’Kelly; but now the state of the industry has changed dramatically.

Companies are now much more comfortable with the notion of corporate information being housed outside a business’ data centers. According to O’Kelly, the pioneering influence of companies such as Salesforce.com, but the real winning ‘argument’ here is the state of the economic climate. IT companies have their arms twisted to cut costs, and with players like Microsoft and Amazon coming with a solution-on-a-platter that allows them to essentially do away with the need for a physical IT department, any qualms enterprise customers may have had are more easily dispelled. Microsoft is just seizing the day, and there’s nothing more capitalist than that.

"There is demand for this, especially now," said developer Alberto Ramirez. "IT departments are scaling back. This requires no IT staff and no server in a room. And the security is taken care of." Ramirez argues that "Microsoft never has to see anything you are doing," because information "can be encrypted on both ends. They're just passing it along."

The second reason is the platform’s ease of use. Microsoft has stated that moving to the new model will be a smooth transition for both end clients and developers. As far as software developers are concerned, especially those who have worked with .NET before, many of their skills will translate, as "The day-to-day writing of code will translate fairly readily. Things that are fundamentally different tend to be at the application framework level.” There is need for changes however, in the way applications are conceived.

Microsoft clarifies: “The fundamental assumption in Windows Azure is that there is no single point of failure. No computer by going down will take down your application. If your app is not written in that way...then fundamentally the application pattern does have to change.”

Microsoft is also fairly confident that end users will switch fairly quickly, especially in user-level environments like e-mail, phones, live meetings and such. Things are a bit different however "In terms of business applications [where] it's really going to take longer... for a variety of reasons, including the risk profile. Some companies might do it quickly," while others may test the waters for a long time.

But to sum it up, in Microsoft Chief Software Architect Ray Ozzie, "Cloud computing is ultimately going to be, do you trust this provider to have more to lose than I have to lose as a company if they mess me up?"