What Is Cloud Computing?

pcmag.com:

What is the cloud? Where is the cloud? Are we in the cloud right now? These are all questions you've probably heard or even asked yourself. The term "cloud computing" is everywhere.

In the simplest terms, cloud computing means storing and accessing data and programs over the internet instead of your computer's hard drive. (The PCMag Encyclopedia defines it succinctly as "hardware and software services from a provider on the internet.")

Ultimately, the "cloud" is just a metaphor for the internet. It goes back to the days of flowcharts and presentations that would represent the gigantic server-farm infrastructure of the internet as nothing but a puffy cloud, accepting connections and doling out information as it floats. (And no, it doesn't have anything to do with clouds in the sky.)

What cloud computing is not about is your local storage. That's when you store data on or run programs from the hard drive or your solid-state drive. Everything you need is physically close to you, which means accessing your data is fast and easy, for that one computer, or others on the local network. Working off your local drive is how the computer industry functioned for decades; some would argue it's still superior to cloud computing, for reasons I'll explain shortly.

The cloud is also not about having a dedicated network attached storage (NAS) device in your house. Storing data on a home or office network does not count as utilizing the cloud. (However, some NAS devices will let you remotely access things over the internet, and there's at least one brand from Western Digital named "My Cloud," just to keep things confusing.)

For it to be considered "cloud computing," you need to access your data or your programs over the internet, or at