The total number of dollars rushing toward cloud computing is massive. The various top research firms - IDC, Gartner, et al. -- all have eyebrow-raising forecasts about the growth rate of cloud-based computing services. But are you seeing a lot of headlines about safety? No, not really, though the worries are out there.

Welcome to 2010! I took a look back at 2009 at the end of the year, and now I am summarizing my thoughts and ideas about what topics will be important in the software development industry in 2010.

This article proposes creating an Android-based service that emulates a network server that enhances the value of the local machine in unique and unexpected ways. Put a tiny cloud in your Android handset and experience the usefulness of a local Web server.

Canonical has been touting its Ubuntu One cloud-storage solution, which allows you to mirror up to 2 GB of files for free and up to 50 GB for $10/month. The service also allows you to sync Tomboy Notes and Evolution contacts across multiple Ubuntu installations.

Today, Yahoo moved its open source cloud computing initiatives up a notch with the donation of its Traffic Server product to the Apache Software Foundation. Traffic Server is used in-house at Yahoo to manage its own trafic and it enables session management, authentication, configuration management, load balancing, and routing for entire cloud computing stacks.

IBM and Canonical, the commercial entity behind Ubuntu Linux, on Tuesday are launching a combined cloud and Linux desktop package designed for Netbooks and low-end PCs.

During their own Sept. 29 Cloud Computing Summit, IDC made what at first glance sounded like a self-defeating statement: clouds, in the long run, are actually a more expensive option than a company running its own datacenter.