This might be the biggest buzz word post I have ever seen on this forum! Cloud computing is nothing new, it is not something we will work towards either. It is simply an evolution of systems. The mainframe could be considered the first “cloud computing” environment. It rose and fell when user variables changed. In the 90’s they brought it back and called it grid computing. Same cycle… Its like a teeter totter. Server technology will be on top and we get clouds, users will increase demand and then the user will be on top and clouds disappear.
Nothing being stored on the computer is nice, but you run into new concerns. 1st being all your eggs are in one basket. If the server farm takes a hit, you are impacting all users. Security breaches are your worse nightmare, now everyones data is in a nice central location. You still have to worry about the transmit to the thin/thick client.
Like sonny said, this concept is nothing new. It has it’s PRO’s and definitely CON’s.