Cloud computing is the new buzzword

There's a new buzzword out there: cloud computing.

The term itself isn't new - I don't remember the first time I heard it, but the term has been regularly thrown around for at least a year - but thanks to Microsoft's announcement about its Azure platform, the word has made the transition from vague computing term to annoying jargon. What is the "cloud"? It's an intentionally vague term used to describe the massive mix of applications and information on the internet. The cloud isn't just for social networking and file sharing. It's also for computing.

About a year ago, I took Microsoft Office off my laptop because I was using an online word processing site called Buzzword.com. The site, which is run by Adobe, is accessed strictly through a web browser. You can do a lot of the same things you can do in Word, without having to pay for the expensive software. There are a number of other advantages to cloud computing, too. The cynical among you are probably asking, "Ok, so what's the downside?" There are several.

The first, especially for those of us here in the Middle East, is connectivity. Of course Microsoft, Google and the rest of the lot have high-speed data connection on their campuses that probably make cloud computing very fast and simple to use, but when you're sitting in a café at the Dubai World Trade Centre fighting for bandwidth with thousands of other professionals, cloud computing can be a bit of a drag.

There's also the issue of location. A few months ago the UAE, not to mention the rest of the Gulf Cooperation Council and large portions of India, were cut off from the world when two of the undersea cables were severed. There are both additional cables being put in place and software being installed to help minimise the impact of future breaks, but will people really want to separate themselves from their data by several thousand miles of easily damaged fibre-optic cable? Finally, there is the issue of security. As cloud computing evolves and more and more information gets uploaded, everyone will eventually be confronted by the facts that their personal information is sitting out there, somewhere in the cloud, surrounded by relatively unknown levels of security. Now, I'm not saying that cloud computing is doomed. Cloud computing is where software is going, and Microsoft's Azure is going to try to take it to the masses. But remember all the security and compatibility issues that came about when XP and Vista were released? Well, it's a safe bet to say there will be more of that when Azure finally comes around. The difference is that those issues were on your computer. The new issues will be somewhere out in the cloud.

Cloud computing is where software is going, and Microsoft's Azure is going to try to take it to the masses

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