Have you noticed mention of doing things “in the cloud” or just the term “cloud computing”? It’s the new buzz expression. Well, you use the cloud in your every day computer life already. Cloud computing is a system whereby data storage, applications and to some degree processing power are available via servers (or computers) other than your own. Those space hogging office programs not longer sit on your computer using up your finite resources, but online where they can expand and contract depending on how many people are accessing them at once.

We use cloud-based services already to some degree. If you use web based email services (hotmail, gmail) photo sharing sites, chat to friends, and on various machines, phones, PDAs and netbooks.

Benefits

Sharing is easier of documents, video or images, eliminating the need for them to download anything. It allows you to use programs without having to have them on your computer, or purchase anything.

Disadvantages

You have to be careful though. As you don’t really know where your data is being held, there is always the chance of losing it. And if it is sensitive information, security should be a worry. If you use a service like Google Docs, you have to figure that none of your documents are going to be particularly private.
And an important disadvantage is that if your work is online, you are stuck if you need it when you are out of range of the Internet, or it just isn’t working at any particular time.

Examples of Cloud Computing

Email – obvious examples are google mail, hotmail, yahoo.

Data Storage – Rather than backing up to a portable drive, there are internet based systems such as Humyo, ZumoDrive, and Dropbox

Collaboration – There are sites that you can use that you can use for web conferencing, online meetings or remote support. Your family can have a calendar that everyone has access to in order to co-ordinate events, holidays etc. With services such as Mikogo , Stixy, it makes it easier than emailing back and forth.

Virtual Office – Google’s online suite of office applications (docs,google.com)is one of the companies offering the online creation of word processor, spreadsheets and even presentations. Thinkfree Online, Zoho. and Microsoft Live are other examples of this type of service.