As the summer clouds begin to dissipate to make way for the laden clouds of winter, there are some clouds that just don’t seem to go away and are only increasing in their intensity.  Cloud computing is all the rage. “It’s become the phrase du jour,” says Gartner senior analyst Ben Pring, echoing many of his peers. The problem is that (as with Web 2.0) everyone seems to have a different definition.

Chances are, you use Google products a lot, whether to search online, watch YouTube videos, or download a book.  You are effectively using the cloud.  The reality and the simple definition is that cloud computing is where our digital data no longer exists on our home computers, but in server farms. The basic advantage is that we can access it from anywhere, reduces infrastructure costs and allows the easy scalability required of adapting software applications.

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