Devoted to hardware, software, IT issues, and information technology management

I was just reading the Technology section of the New York Times and came across and interesting article "Software via the Internet: Microsoft in ‘Cloud’ Computing" about a new service offering from Microsoft (NYSE: MSFT).  There are already several vendors out there such as Salesforce.com offering Internet-based applications.  Google Apps is also a direct competitor to Microsoft's Windows Live software suite in this space.

I've read that this term can be interchanged with On Demand or Utility Computing, but I think Cloud Computing speaks more to pre-defined software suites accessible over the Internet; while the other terms, at least in my opinion, refer to a dynamic infrastructure for supporting custom software.

I'm not sure what comfort level most companies would have with this kind of service and have seen quite a few server-based client applications or thin-client solutions bite the dust in the past few years, but if Microsoft is stepping into this market people will sit up and take notice.

Do you think this is more useful for a home user or SMB?  I'll do some more background research and post a follow-up soon.  It does appear to be an up and coming technology.