(+) Why Cloud Computing Makes Sense for Genealogy

One of the current buzzwords in the online world is "cloud computing." You can probably find dozens of definitions of this new technology, but I think the simplest is that cloud computing refers to a computer application running on a distant computer or, more often, in a cluster of computers. Those multiple computers often are installed in different data centers around the world, and yet they work in harmony as if they were one very big and very powerful computer.

In fact, if your present computer is showing its age and is slowing down a bit, switching to cloud computing applications is an excellent method of obtaining several more years of productive use from the aging hardware.

Your local desktop or laptop works as a "remote terminal," with your video screen showing what is happening on the distant computer(s) and your local keyboard and mouse being used as input devices for the same distant computer(s). n short, while the program runs on distant computers, you use it as if the program was running in your local system. As a result, your local computer requires very little processing power and, in most cases, a minimal amount of disk storage space. Instead, you are using the power and storage space of the powerful, distant computers.