by: Bill Black
You hear about cloud computing. You might even have an idea of what that means, but maybe you find yourself in a cloud of confusion. Let me take a few minutes to explain why cloud computing is perfect for you and how it will make your life so much easier.
You have a computer. You buy programs like Microsoft Office. You spend lots of time creating documents, letters, books, pictures. You save all kinds of stuff on your computer, you have hundreds of bookmarks. Now you get a new computer. How do you get the stuff off your first computer? You need to use Word but it's not on this computer. Your pictures are on the other computer. I love this laptop, but everything I need is on my old computer. Worse yet, your old computer dies before you figure out how to move it, share it and keep it all safe. Now what....most of us just start over from scratch.
Back to cloud computing. The "cloud" is a term that refers to the internet. Cloud computing is the idea that instead of locating all of your programs, documents, pictures, bookmarks and other stuff on one single computer you store all that stuff somewhere on the internet. That way, if your computer crashes you don't lose anything. If you get another computer it's all available instantly, if you have to use someone elses computer or use one at the library you can access all your stuff. If you buy a tablet or an ipad, guess what, you can get to everything you had on your home computer or laptop. It's magic!