The new big buzz word in the computing world is “Cloud” computing. In the past I’ve been critical of the concept and even poked fun at Cloud Computing. Last month I released WinPatrol Cloud Edition and quickly learned that most people have no clue what Cloud computing means.
In simple terms, Cloud computer refers to having programs and data reside on an outside network device instead of permanently on your local hard drive. In theory it turns your browser into a flexible smart terminal and the main program you execute. The program you run and data you store is somewhere else on the planet similar to the old concept of a main frame.
Even the term cloud comes from the representation of actions defined by newer tools used to create programmer flow charts.
So why are we going backwards to terminals and main frames? It turns out in this day of application embed browsers and high speed internet “some” applications are very well suited for a cloud environment. If you’re using Amazon or Facebook, you’re already using a cloud application. A cloud can be public or private and becomes most valuable when a service or data can be shared.
You may be surprised to learn data including your photo may already shared by various cloud applications. Here’s an example of how my Email add-on called Xobni uses data uploaded to the LinkedIn service. This information is automatically displayed if I select an Email from Chris. 
Other applications may use your photo along with information from your Twitter or Facebook account. While I love having someone’s personal data available while answering Email you might want to consider reviewing some of your privacy settings on various social applications.
The WinPatrol Cloud
The planned release of my new software made me wake up to how little folks understand about the Cloud Computing. The WinPatrol Cloud Edition is considered a “Software-as-a-Service” version of a cloud and relies on a collaboration approach to bring a huge value to all it’s users. There are two parts to our new PLUS service.
One part is based on software behavior and actions taken by WinPatrol FREE and PLUS users. The WinPatrol cloud will track how users handle their decision to handle configuration changes. This information is accumulated continuously and will be available to other WinPatrol PLUS users. It’s like the Millionaire's "Ask the Audience" feature. User based information is available now and in the future additional information on software behavior will help users decide if a program is worth keeping.
The second part of the WinPatrol Cloud is a poll where users can provide their personal feedback on files that are detected. The poll data will be available to both FREE and PLUS users.
Click image for example of complete information available to PLUS users.
Resources: 
Microsoft | Cloud Services
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