The Cloud. It sounds so, ominous. Not just A cloud, a white fluffly cream puff in the sky, but The Cloud. The one Cloud to rule them all . . .ok too nerdy. But really, what does The Cloud mean? Well, it can mean helping libraries cut some costs. It can mean not having to purchase a fleet of office suites for hundreds of computers. It can mean an easy alternative to being tied to just one machine. I mean who of us hasn't lost a term paper or other important document when our computers decide to crash? The cloud can mean freedom and the ability to work from anywhere we choose. It can also mean having to think about who REALLY owns our ideas. If we post or save something to The Cloud, will we EVER really be able to say that it is only our own property? Without any agreements or contracts we could be opening the doors to some really tricky intellectual property arguments. Also, what if we decide to go with a company that isn't the big G and they get bought out by someone else, or if in the worst case they go bust and we aren't able to get our documents back? What about security? What if someone hacks the site and steals our ideas? There are a lot of really important questions we need to think about before diving head first into the cloud. While I take the time to ponder what I think I should do personally and professionally (My personal experience is limited to a few photo albums and a handful of google docs) Ill just keep the wise Keith Richards in mind, "Hey you get off of my cloud".
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