In the keynote, Paul Maritz declared the death of the OS, an obvious jab at MSFT. His message: VMware wants to build the next generation apps independent of a general purpose operating system. Microsoft countered with an ad in USA Today warning of VMWare ‘lock-in’.

Apple’s data center in Maiden, N.C. is expected to provide the back-end for a larger move into cloud computing, with most speculation focusing on a shift of iTunes music and video libraries from user desktops to online storage. The $1 billion data center will be about 500,000 square feet, nearly 5x the size of Apple’s existing 109,000 square foot Newark, Calif. facility.

Questions raised: Is Apple about to unveil the iDataCenter? What’s better, caching equipment at dozens of sites around the world, or focusing on a single large data center? What is Apple going to USE it for?

Dell started the opening bid at $1.15b. HP countered. As a result, 3Par’s stock has more than tripled. 3Par is a leader in utility storage, but has posted 4 straight years of operating and net losses.

Questions raised: What’s so great about 3Par? Why do these tech giants think it’s worth 3x more than the stock market valued it before the bidding war began? Is this a sign we’re about to see a growing trend in cloud storage? Is their judgment clouded?

Jigsaw is a crowdsourced business contact database Salesforce acquired earlier this year. Jigsaw can now make real-time updates to contact and company info through Salesforce chatter. Currently, Jigsaw has a database of more than 22 million business contacts and 4 million company profiles that are continually updated by a community of more than 1.4 million individuals.It costs $29/mo on top of existing CRM use charges.

PocketCloud uses 3G or Wi-Fi networks to connect a smartphone to a Mac, or Microsoft Windows Home, Windows 7, Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows Remote Desktop Services, and Windows Terminal Services. It was first used for accessing entertainment content, but the same users started asking about access files and desktop applications available through a variety of virtualized desktops.

Question raised:  What are you seeing in the mobile cloud?

Lynn Langit, senior developer evangelist at Microsoft

On Twitter: @llangit

During this lively chat, Amanda, Lynn and Dave discuss:

This Week in Cloud Computing is brought to you by: Virtacore, Storm on Demand, NetDNA (@virtacore @StormOnDemand @NetDNACDN)

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