How many of the many other vendors out there have business models/revenue models that are strong enough to “go the distance”? Then, how easily could we find ourselves basically being tied to those Big 3 to reduce the risks…thus making a bit of a monopoly when it comes to the network itself? So where the network, the cloud would suggest we’re all set free, we really wouldn’t be in truth.

As for an example in education, there are pockets of it happening here and there (particularly when it comes to talk of ‘outsourcing’ student email) but I suspect we’ll see things really start to happen over the next couple of years. For me it’s data storage that I’ll be watching (amongst everything else). Does an institution relinquish control and accept students storing their data all over the place in the cloud (and try to provide expert guidance)…or does it go further and enter into an explicit agreement with an external service provider such as Amazon’s S3 and, thereby, reduce its in-house costs?

Interesting times ahead I think!