Although not entirely surprising--as HP recently announced its it makes--it's going to be a tough road ahead for HP, which is coming to the cloud party pretty late.

Above all, I can't help feeling that HP's approaching the cloud from the wrong angle. Google and Amazon have their own reasons for being in the cloud, and they're likely to be quite different from those of HP.

With its Docs product, among other things, simply because it wants to own our data. If it can give us the tools to get at the data--whether that's an online office suite or --then Google's just one step closer to that goal.

We pay for Google services by giving Google access to our data. Is HP as interested in data as is Google? Or, more likely, does it intend to launch cloud services that'll come with a subscription model? If so, bearing in mind that we expect everything online to be free of charge, how will HP convince us to open our wallets? HP's going to have to come up with something very clever indeed.

As for , there's little doubt its cloud services exist to make money. But Amazon has done a stunning job of simultaneously positioning itself as the best and also the fuss-free, bottom-dollar choice.