As a Virtual Assistant I work 100% in the 'cloud' with my clients. Now, I am not an IT expert - I am pretty IT savvy, and can pick up new programs and apps quickly - so I cannot explain to you what the cloud is technically.. however what I understand is that it all makes our working lives much easier. I tend to use Dropbox to save and share documents with clients - it is more expensive that Google Docs - but I use Dropbox as it saves and uploads automatically. This means that a client can send me a word document using Dropbox, I can open and amend it - save it back to the Dropbox folder and it is updated and ready to be viewed immediately - you also know that you are always working on the latest version. Dropbox is very easy to download and set-up. It also negates the need to save to an external hard-drive (I do, do a back-up Dropbox to a external hard-drive every month as well.. just in-case) as it is saved securely in the cloud - you can also revert back to an older copy of a document and undelete something you may of accidentally deleted (who decided that rename and delete should be under each other in word..) So I really like working with Dropbox - it has saved me a few times when I have accidentally deleted something and I am always safe in the knowledge that the client always has the latest version of a document. Dropbox is also a downloadable app you can have on your smartphone - so if you do need to send something urgently or share a folder you can do so by your phone.
A simple definition of cloud computing involves delivering different types of services over the Internet. ... You can access it from just about any computer that has internet access. For businesses, cloud computing means improved collaboration and productivity, as well as significant cost reductions.