Moving data from one vendor to another is as simple as dragging and dropping an on-screen icon. But behind the scenes, there's much more going on. When data is stored on Amazon's servers using its Simple Storage Service (S3), for instance, it is saved in a proprietary format that keeps it from simply being moved to another service. To solve this problem, Cloudkick has written software that automatically unbundles the data from the S3 file system. This involves removing a layer of encryption that surrounds the data, explains Alex Polvi, cofounder of Cloudkick. The data can then be uploaded to another provider--the whole process takes about five minutes. "It's like ripping a CD," says Polvi.

Cloudkick isn't the only company offering novel ways to manage cloud-computing services. Companies including CloudStatus and RightScale also provide a way to monitor cloud servers via the Web. Cloudkick's advantage, according to Polvi, is that it keeps things as simple as possible and now gives users the ability to switch servers so easily.

Di Spaltro adds that eventually Cloudkick would like to let customers transfer between cloud providers based on preset pricing options, or based on the geographic location in which the heaviest load occurs. For instance, if one provider offers a deal below a certain price, Cloudkick could automatically transfer data over to that service. Or if a customer's servers experience a heavy load in one part of the world during a certain time of day, he or she could automatically transfer the load to servers in that location at that time, reducing lag and improving performance.

"The value proposition to moving workloads around is great," says Frank Gillett, an analyst at Forrester Research. He says that the portability Cloudkick offers will appeal especially to startups, "who are shopping around for the lowest price or want to move quickly."

However, Gillett adds that there's still a lot of uncertainty about cloud computing and the types of services that will be the most useful. "The concepts are getting ahead of the market need," he says. "It's cool to see these startups springing up as experiments, but let's remember: we're at the very beginning."