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Oracle has launched a number of new Cloud services that the company claims will provide enterprises with all the tools they need to run their operations in the cloud.

Microsoft is equipping its Azure cloud service with a tool to debug PHP-based Web applications that are running on the platform.

Amazon Web Services is offering its customers free use of over 85,000 satellite images, setting the stage for new types of geographically-oriented cloud applications.

When troubleshooting a misbehaving Web application, administrators will often first check the server's logs for clues. Google is trying to ease that process by consolidating into a single location all the logs for user applications built on its cloud platform.

For the opening of its largest user conference in recent memory, IBM wanted to show attendees the power of Cloud computing and the Internet of Things. So it asked everyone in the MGM Grand auditorium to don a plastic wristband with an embedded chip and some LED lights.

As Salesforce.com's SaaS offerings become more sophisticated, configuration and deployment gets more complex. In response, enterprises are increasingly turning to partners for implementation help.

Open source software companies must move to the Cloud and add proprietary code to their products to succeed. The current business model is recipe for failure.

Amazon dominates the Cloud, but IBM, strengthened by its SoftLayer acquisition, has unleashed a marketing campaign that fires on all cylinders. Whether IBM's Ccloud is, in fact, better may matter less than Amazon's ability to challenge a company that's made many competitors crumble over the past 102 years.

The new Microsoft-Oracle partnership benefits both companies, as Oracle gets access to Azure and Microsoft can finally license Java. Will the deal have any effect on either company's enterprise customers?

Software developer Christopher Shockey saw the first signs of trouble in late 2008. A sales rep who had always represented Web application development provider Coghead was now calling on behalf of Coghead's much larger rival Salesforce.com.