What Is the Future of Microsoft Dynamics AX in the Cloud? Being Upfront About the Obstacles

I am currently reading The Big Switch - Rewiring the world from Edison to Google by Nicholas Car.  The book draws a colorful parallel between Thomas Edison's battle to power the world versus a "Google type" company's battle to power the emerging cloud computing technology shift.  The book sounds a warning to the major on-premise solution providers such as Microsoft, IBM and Dell, as Nicholas Car ultimately declares that utility computing will forever change the computing landscape, and most important, is here to stay. 

I mention this book because most of Microsoft's Worldwide Partner Conference (WPC) was focused on Microsoft's Software-Plus- Services (S + S) strategy, especially as relates to Windows Azure, Microsoft Online Services, Microsoft Dynamics CRM, and Microsoft Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS).  At the heart of Microsoft's strategy is the "power of choice".  The strategy differs from pure Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) by attempting to achieve server/services symmetry by allowing businesses to move parts of their applications to/from terrestrial servers into the cloud.  If you are not exactly familiar with the term "cloud computing" or Software-as-a-Service (SaaS), I have summarized the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) definitions below:

• Cloud computing is a model for enabling on-demand, metered access to a shared pool of location independent configurable computing resources that can be rapidly provisioned.
• Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) is one of three (3) cloud computing delivery models where applications running on a cloud infrastructure are accessible from various client devices through a thin client interface such as web browser.

What is the future of SaaS for ERP applications like Microsoft Dynamics AX? What follows ...