There are many benefits to cloud computing apps such as Google apps and Salesforce.com, especially in terms of reducing costs and allowing someone else to run things that are not part of your core business. However one of the downsides is that once you take the plunge and invest in a “cloud-based” application, it can be difficult to get your data back out again, or switch to another provider…. So kudos to Google for their Data Liberation initiative

http://www.dataliberation.org/home

Including:

• How to escape from gmail,
• YouTube
• Google Docs

I wonder if MS will follow suit?