The article seems to only go into shallow depths as to the motivations for "cloud", i.e. "because microsoft want to". There are however bigger, more meaningful, and more sinister motivations for the "cloud".

Migrating products and services to be "online", which is essentially what the cloud is, is a win-win - politically and economically.

Being online means that Senior Analyst Mike Bloggs from GameCorp Co. can make monthly summaries about which ad struck, about which user did what, about how well that microtransaction performed with each user. It means that CTO Satya from Microsoft gets tax breaks et al, discussed over the meetings he often attends with government, for exchanging user data with FBI, GCHQ, etc. It means VP of Sales Matt Thebosspants from EA can control access to a game with codes, DMR-ing content.

It's a win on all sides, and there is nothing you can do about the ever-spreading cloud.

Heard of those cloud-connected toys for kids nowadays? Ain't that cute.