In the history of computing, an innovation has defined each decade and its technology leadership.

• The 1950s were about mainframes and IBM(IBM).
• The 1960s were about minicomputers and companies such as Digital Equipment Corp.
• The 1970s were about the microchip and companies such as Intel(INTC).
• The 1980s were about local networks and companies such as Novell(NOVL).
• The 1990s were about the Internet and, to a large extent, Microsoft(MSFT).
• The 2000s were about gadgets and, of course, Apple(AAPL).

We’re now into the third year of the 2010s, and it’s clear that the computing theme of our time is cloud computing. The question is: Where will the leadership lie? Who will be the prime beneficiary?…

Salesforce.com, already a leading provider of cloud services to the public sector, is doubling down on its government business, unveiling on Wednesday a major initiative to host federal, state and local agencies’ computing operations in a multi-tenant cloud environment, along with a new app marketplace and a training program to equip integrators with the skills to help government clients shift to the cloud.

The cornerstone of Saleforce’s announcement is a new government cloud, a multi-tenant, dedicated cloud computing environment for public-sector databases and applications…

Microsoft System Center 2012 is now generally available as a reorganized systems management system with separate provider and consumer management consoles. The addition of a consumer console allows a company’s employees to provision themselves with virtual machines.

Systems Center 2012 has been restructured, not only to help IT and operations managers handle large sets of Windows Server systems, but also to give System Center a more private-cloud-like approach to data center management, said Brad Anderson, Microsoft corporate VP of security and management…

Google Inc. (GOOG) stepped up competition with Apple Inc. and Microsoft (MSFT) Corp. in cloud computing, enabling users to store documents, audio clips and videos through a Web connection.

The Google Drive service, beginning today, gives users online storage similar to a hard drive’s, allowing access to files from computers and other devices, said Sundar Pichai, Google senior vice president. As much as 5 gigabytes of cloud- based storage is provided free, while users may pay $2.49 a month for 25 gigabytes and higher fees for more…

Greenpeace activists are nothing if not determined. If the cause calls for it, they’ll break out the rappelling gear and get down to action—as they did last Thursday at Amazon‘s headquarters in South Lake Union, hoisting an 800-square-foot cloud-shaped banner to protest the dirty energy that Greenpeace says Amazon and Microsoft use to power their cloud-computing services. The banner read: "Amazon, Microsoft: How Clean Is Your Cloud?"

Cloud computing providers came under fire today from security experts who blamed them for giving cyber-criminals the tools to launch attacks more easily, efficiently and anonymously than ever before.

Speaking at the fourth InfoSecurity Summit in Hong Kong on Tuesday, SC Leung – a senior consultant at the city-state’s Computer Emergency Response Team – argued that crooks are making the most of the sudden rise of distributed number-crunching services.

Sears Holdings Corp., known for selling general merchandise, is getting into the business of selling space — specifically, data-storage space.

The Hoffman Estates-based retailer announced today that it has launched MetaScale, a wholly owned subsidiary that will provide data-management services.

Sears sees the venture as a natural extension of the resources it has spent over the past two years building the infrastructure it needs to manage data for its more than 4,000 Sears and Kmart stores…

Xerox for the past few years has steadily, and quietly, been building out its cloud offerings. Now officials from the venerable printer and copier company are ready to make some noise about it.

"We’ve done the work, we’ve served our customers and now we’re ready to start talking about it," says Rob Schilperoort, vice president of product management for Xerox Cloud Services, the business unit of the $20 billion company that has been best known for its document management and IT outsourcing (ITO) business units. Xerox boasts an infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) offering that supports multiple operating systems, plus a more traditional hosted collaboration offering.

Schilperoort says Xerox already has more than 85 customers using Xerox Cloud Services…

Google expanded the digital world of cloud computing on Tuesday, announcing the rollout of "Google Drive."

The service, which will give users 5GB of free remote storage and additional space for a monthly fee, puts the Web giant in competition with Apple and Microsoft, as well as specialized services like Box and Dropbox, in a space that increasingly looks like the future of computing.

"This is really just the next step in the evolution of Google Cloud," Scott Johnston, group product manager for Google Drive, told CNN. "It’s really letting people live more in the cloud by connecting them more easily with all the devices they have."…