The "Cloud" is NOT new

In the old days, those days before we all had a PC on our desk, there were "mainframes" and "dumb terminals".   Technology was delivered from a central location where all data was kept and delivered to what were essentially monitors and keyboards.  Data was delivered from a “Cloud”.  Then came the PC and computer power and storage were distributed and the "main frame" started to go the way of the dinosaur.  Well, that dinosaur is back it appears.  Some call it the "Cloud" as if the concept is new and novel. It is not.  Even in the modern day of the PC, much of the data we access today is in fact somewhere other than on our PC.  In some cases, we access data sitting on a server in another room, another floor, across the state, across the country or even on the other side of the world.  To us, the average user, we often don't really know or in fact care where our data originates, as long as it is safe and available.  Yes, sales folk, CIO's and those technical types want us to think that "Cloud" is something magical, new and different, when it’s not.  That is not to say that the concept of keeping data in a "Cloud" is not important.  For a law firm, as an example, not having to deal with managing servers, software and all the associated infrastructure to simply access documents is frankly in most cases much more cost effective when managed by a service provider who already has everything they need in terms of technology.  Most service providers in this business have been delivering "Cloud" technology for years, so let’s not keep thinking of this as a new thing. The "Cloud" is old; we are just using it in a different way.  Who knows, we may well return to the days of dumb terminals and mainframes. Wait, we are already there, but we call them "Smart".  And, there is this thing called the iCloud where something called an iPad accesses information in the "Cloud".  We have indeed come full circle it appears.