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Amazon announced their new SimpleDB service today, which makes storing and accessing structured data easy and inexpensive:

Amazon SimpleDB is a web service for running queries on structured data in real time. This service works in close conjunction with Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) and Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2), collectively providing the ability to store, process and query data sets in the cloud. These services are designed to make web-scale computing easier and more cost-effective for developers.

The usage-based costing model Amazon keeps promoting is definitely going to have an impact on how the industry views software (in this case, as a service). I realize they are trying to monetize this on their own, but if they developed an appliance-based solution for enterprises that scaled by adding low-cost boxes and incorporated the technologies behind their compute cloud, storage service and this new structured data hosting they would make many CIOs very happy campers.