But now there is the danger of a new form of lock-in. "Cloud-computing"-the delivery of computer services from vast warehouses of shared machines-enables companies and individuals to cut costs by handing over the running of their [enterprise applications] to someone else, and then accessing it over the internet.  [..] But customers risk losing control once again, in particular over their data.

The Economist, May 30th-June 5th, p. 18

Others have said it in the past, and more people will say it in the future: The Economist is one of the best newspapers in the world and well worth its price. The publication pleasantly surprises me on many occasions, and this issue is no exception.

While the article is not very long, or even prominently positioned, it does contain a few very important observations: be careful not to lose control when moving existing data into the Cloud, and address the risk of not being able to move data out of the Cloud once it is in there.