Weathering the Storm: The Policy Implications of Cloud Computing

Throughout the history of computing, there have been several paradigm shifts from main-frames to mini computing to micro-processing to networked computers. On track to be the next major paradigm shift is that of cloud computing. While the definitions are still being debated, fundamentally, cloud computing can be defined as a push in designing services where information is stored and processed on the Internet (i.e., \the cloud") usually via massive large scale data centers which can be accessed remotely through various clients and platforms. Cloud computing itself has often been referred to as a conglomeration of ideas such as Software as a Service, Web 2.0, grid computing, and utility computing.