The economics of the cloud in action

Compare and contrast the following excerpts from Computer Weekly news stories in the past few days:
27 November: Google is expanding its infrastructure-as-a-service cloud computing platform into Europe and
HP vs Autonomy – a high-stakes game with a big loser

Congratulations to HP for creating a global flood of words about its increasingly controversial purchase of British software company Autonomy last year.
The accusations of "questionable accounting and business practices" that led to
Tax transparency will be a growing issue for government IT suppliers

Considering the amount of taxpayers' cash that goes to IT suppliers - some £16bn per year at latest estimates - it was inevitable that the big multinational systems integrators that dominate Whitehall IT would come under scrutiny over their tax payments.
The vultures have been circling...
Universal Credit – the last failure of the old IT regime, or a boost for the new?

There are two things that often signal a major government IT project on the brink of disaster. First, streams of leaks appear suggesting little problems here and rather bigger problems there; and second, the relevant Whitehall press office tells journalists it is not going to provide a "running...
We need more visionary IT leaders

When IT leaders explain their reasons for not moving to a new technology, it is almost always due to immediate or short-term perceived problems.
Should you move to the cloud? Security is a concern. Should you overhaul your information security? Ooh, too risky, what if we get hit by...
The government’s open standards policy is bold, important and very carefully written

The government has finally released its policy for open standards in IT - after an