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Adobe Systems Inc said upgrades for its flagship software package, which includes Photoshop, Illustrator and Flash, would be available only through online subscriptions, effective immediately.

What's the difference between Windows Azure and Amazon Web Services? Very little – or so says Microsoft, which has made a new commitment to match the web bazaar's pricing for basic cloud services. The price-matching announcement was made by Microsoft on Tuesday, alongside news that Redmond thinks its infrastructure-as-a-service cloud is now ready for general consumption.

Google Drive, the search giant’s cloud-based storage service for documents and other files, experienced a “service disruption” this morning according to the company’s status page. Google Inc. issued an update shortly after 11 a.m., indicating a problem “affecting a significant subset of users” who were unable to access Google Drive.

Google has unveiled its first touchscreen-enabled laptop. The Chromebook Pixel runs Google's Chrome operating system and has been "largely built" by the web giant.

Free digital copies of 50,000 CDs are being offered to Amazon customers via a service that stores the music in the cloud.

Amazon.com's latest technical glitch—interrupting service for Netflix Inc. and others—is causing some companies to rethink their reliance on the company for the bulk of their Web-computing needs.

Google moved to take on Amazon.com in the fast-growing market for what the industry calls cloud services, allowing companies to run their applications and store data on computers managed by the Internet giant.

Google is hoping to build the world's largest digital filing cabinet in the latest attempt to deepen people's dependence on its services. The Internet search leader's latest product stores personal documents, photos, videos and a wide range of other digital content on Google's computers. By keeping files in massive data centers, users will be able to call up the information on their smartphones, tablet computers, laptops and just about any other Internet-connected device.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. previewed its "Disc to Digital" service for converting DVDs into an online library on Wednesday. Based on my experience, I'd give it a six out of 10....

If you are a cloud virgin, what is the best way to get started and learn more about what the cloud can offer? Here are several suggestions, from the perspective of someone who has moderate IT knowledge and not necessarily the full backing and support resources of an IT department behind them.