Google cloud or dust?

Yesterday Google unveiled ‘Google App Engine‘. An attempt to capture a future that its is betting will be mostly Could. Large hi-tech firms are all in in this space competing to grab a piece of the pie. The idea here is that it is making computing power available to businesses/individuals  that do not want to buy and maintain their own infrastructure. But why does Google care to reduce costs to business owners?  Google is in search business. Search needs data. Different types of data. More data = more search = more revenues. Now that would make sense. May be Amazon, with its successful  Amazon web Services, caught Googles’ attention. Microsoft is sure to respond in some fashion. Is Google App Engine already a central part of all its applications? No idea yet.  Will business and individuals all jump into this? At least not yet. There are no details on what type of alliances will Google have with existing players in the market.  One thing that is in favor of Google is its reputation and its track record on delivering simple easy solutions.  As Google App Engine takes in community feedback and evolves it may turn into  the silver lining in the world of cloud computing. or may be not.