What is the cloud?

William Gibson, the famous science fiction writer, author of Neuromancer and of the concept of cyberspace, has put it rather well:

“Clouds are numinous,” Gibson says. “But the cloud’s main usefulness lies in its vagueness, like cyberspace - a word which is also useful for its vagueness. Or perhaps,” he adds, “people are thinking of thought balloons in comics.”

Tomorrow we continue exploring the debate over cloud computing…