Today, there is a new term which many may not have heard before and its Cloud or Cloud Computing. This is now a term which many within the ICT Industry apply when it involves using web-based or Internet based courses and other services. As stated by Wikipedia, it is a style of computing where IT-related capabilities are provided as a service allowing users to access technology-enabled services “in the cloud” without knowledge of, expertise with, or control over the technology infrastructure that supports them. According to the IEEE Computer Society it is a paradigm in which information is permanently stored in servers on the Internet and cached temporarily on clients that include desktops, entertainment centre, table computers, notebooks, wall computers, handhelds, etc.

Cloud computing is a general concept that incorporates software as a service, Web 2.0 and other recent, well-known technology trends, where the common theme is reliance on the Internet for satisfying the needs of the users. For example, Google Apps (i.e. Gmail, Google Calender, Talk, Docs and Sites) provide common business applications online that are accessed from a web-browser, while the software and the data are stored on the server.

Today, many companies like Adobe, Google, Microsoft, Zoho etc, offer a variety of Cloud (Internet based) software for users, including data storage. It was once thought that Cloud computing could spell the end of Office Suite, but that has not yet come to pass. The most popular of all Cloud software is email (Gmail, Windows Live Hotmail, Yahoo Mail etc.) and many of us today use these programs along with our normal ISP email account. The major advantage of Cloud software is that you can access the software and your data from any computer anywhere in the world as long as it is connected to the Internet. So, next time you hear someone talking about the clouds just make sure they are talking about the weather and not Internet based-software.

Last week I wrote about Web-Browsers and I also stated I liked Firefox. If you would like to know more about this web-browser the October 2008 issue of PC Authority has an excellent 5-page article on Firefox 3 which outlines it many features and how to use them.