From what I understand, there isn't going to be just a single alternative that we turn to in lieu of centralized data services. What may work for some applications, won't work for others. Perhaps there will be some tasks for which workarounds are not feasible or are just plain too slow to be viable. However, my point is that that doesn't mean we shouldn't seek those alternatives and mitigate our reliance on those services to the extent that we can. But, I think there's a window for those technologies and we're either in it right now or it has already passed us. The more reliant we become on centralized web services, the less we look into alternatives, and the more infrastructure we invest in that caters to these types of services, the harder it will be to turn around.

-- KateVershov - 04 Jun 2009