On the Cloud News Roundup: Week of September 1, 2011

This week in cloud computing Apple announced the MacBook Air is positioned to support cloud computing as well as increase awareness during the iCloud push, VMware makes several key announcements at VMworld including that it will focus on Hybrid cloud deployments, and Ford reveals a new car that not only connects you to the cloud but organizes your schedule as you drive. These stories and more in this week's On the Cloud Roundup:

• The Apple MacBook Air is designed specifically for cloud computing and the goal it seems is to create the thinnest lap top imaginable for consumers. As the cloud becomes more ordinary, Apple seeks to make it laptops anything but. [LA Times] [Techland]
   
• OpenSpan for Service Cloud is now available on the AppExchange, OpenSpan’s technology allows the almost instantaneous integration between Salesforce and other applications partnered with the software which will have a dramatic effect on the efficiency and functionality Salesforce has to offer. [San Francisco Chronicle]
   
• It has been a big week for VMware with VMworld happening this week in Las Vegas and then followed by the revelation that it will be aiming its new products toward hybrid cloud deployments as well as a global cloud. [eWeek] [InformationWeek]
   
• Ford has launched a new plug-in for its Evos concept car allowing it a cloud connection which saves fuel as well as your time by keeping your schedule organized.[PCMag] [WSJ]
   
• At the Dreamforce conference this week the Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff announced that Salesforce had been reborn social which includes the creation of a social network for the Salesforce employees and creating a social picture for the company profile according to Benioff. [Washington Post] [ITPRO]