This week’s tie-up by HP, Intel, and Yahoo to form cloud computing labs might seem like just another announcement, but it isn’t because the initiative will rely heavily on open source technology. And that means the companies will share their findings, along with at least some of their code, with the community. The companies are also playing catch-up to IBM, which has been promoting Blue Cloud for some time and last year teamed with Google on an initiative similar to the HP, Intel, and Yahoo lab. “From a business standpoint, of course, we’re seeing the benefits of increased competition,” Bill Snyder explains in Cloud computing goes open source. “And while I’m critical of Yahoo, Google, and Microsoft for attempting to stifle competition in other areas, I say hats off to these companies for investing in the future of computing.” Technology Industry