The Information Technology (IT) Vocabulary Builder series aims to deliver a very concise summary of a currently relevant topic to Information Professionals.  It is done mostly by collecting a small number of highly relevant web links to save you the time of combing through search results yourself.  It differs from sites such as Wikipedia because it includes opinions, forecasts, and detractions in addition to just facts.

clouds

Cloud computing is the relocation of all of your data from the local confines of your internet access device (i.e. computer, smart phone, etc…) to network storage devices that are accessible constantly over the wireless internet. It is an extremely popular term right now in the information technology press.

The Wikipedia site is an excellent introduction to the topic.This is how Wikipedia defines SaaS:

“Cloud Computing is a style of computing in which dynamically scalable and often virtualised resources are provided as a service over the Internet. Users need not have knowledge of, expertise in, or control over the technology infrastructure "in the cloud" that supports them. The concept incorporates infrastructure as a service (IaaS), platform as a service (PaaS) and software as a service (SaaS) as well as Web 2.0”  (link )

The following two sites contain more information on the topic with a positive bent.

  1. Tim O’Reilly’s article on Web 2.0 and Cloud Computing
  2. Information Week’s  Guide To Cloud Computing

The following two sites contain more information on the topic with a cautious angle.

  1. Jean-Louis Gassée reporting on comments of Richard Stallman: Cloud Computing is Bad For You.
  2. ScienceBlogs.com: Cloud Computing

Take Away: Cloud computing solves the problems of platform-centric file systems, backup complexity, archiving expense, and data availability.  As we march along the progress trail from mainframes, to personal computing, to make the next leap to truly mobile computing, we need to accept that cloud computing is better, inevitable, and should be welcomed by Information Professionals everywhere.

Have you employed Cloud Computing in your organization?  Do you use it personally? Any lessons learned?  Do you have suggestions on future IT Vocabulary Builders?

That is my Information Technology Thought of the Day (ITTOD) for June 4, 2009 ©Scott Coughlin .

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