“Monetizing the Cloud 101”

Good read @ E-Commerce Times by Ed Sullivan Monetizing the Cloud 101: The Proof Is in the Profit. The article rightly points out that the advantage in the cloud is opening up your offering. Third-party developers can then create market-specific products. Apple is specifically mentioned; however, Salesforce.com and even Twitter have thriving developer environments. Force.com has become a required marketplace for a third-party CRM developers. Twitter API has spawned hundreds of applications based on Twitter, although time will tell how Twitter will profit.