Google Chrome OS vs. Microsoft Azure

I was reading an article on eweek.com, about the upcoming “operating system” battle in the cloud.

“…with Microsoft arriving in the cloud, albeit later than Google, Amazon.com, Salesforce.com and others, what is to stop it from taking the cloud mantle from these companies in their respective spaces -- cloud collaboration, cloud infrastructure and cloud business apps -- within a couple of years?”

From the Google Blog: “Google Chrome OS is an open source, lightweight operating system that will initially be targeted at netbooks. Later this year we will open-source its code, and netbooks running Google Chrome OS will be available for consumers in the second half of 2010.”

From Microsoft: “The Windows Azure platform offers a flexible, familiar environment for developers to create cloud applications and services. With Windows Azure, you can shorten your time to market and adapt as demand for your service grows.”