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A cloud can be private or public:

As with any business related activity there are both risks and opportunities associated with using cloud computing services.

potentially a number of business and information risks associated with using cloud computing services.

noted that even if the cloud computing environment is managed wholly within NSW an appropriate risk assessment of the service and the provider should occur.

level of risk that an organisation attributes to a proposed cloud computing arrangement will vary according to the content or subject matter of their records

The content of the contract in these types of service arrangements is very important.

What are others saying? Australia Australasian Digital Recordkeeping Initiative (ADRI), Advice on managing the recordkeeping risks associated with cloud computing, July 2010, available at http://www.adri.gov.au Defence Signals Directorate (Commonwealth), Cloud computing security considerations, April 2011, available at http://www.dsd.gov.au/infosec/cloudsecurity.htm Department of Finance and Deregulation (Commonwealth), Cloud computing strategic direction paper: opportunities and applicability for use by the Australian Government, April 2011, available at http://www.finance.gov.au/e-government/strategy-and-governance/docs/final_cloud_computing_strategy_version_1.pdf

International Archives and Records Association UK and Ireland, Cloud computing toolkit: guidance for outsourcing information storage to the cloud, August 2010, available at http://www.archives.org.uk/images/documents/Cloud_Computing_Toolkit-2.pdf – this guidance contains a comprehensive overview of the range of cloud computing services available and the recordkeeping considerations that apply to each CIO Council and Chief Acquisition Officers Council (USA), Creating effective cloud computing contracts for the Federal Government: best practices for acquiring IT as a service, February 2012, available at http://www.cio.gov/cloudbestpractices.pdf – this is a comprehensive and useful document for those seeking to procure cloud computing services

As individuals and members of organizations, we’re already choosing between desktop applications and cloud applications when it comes to e-mail, RSS, file storage, word processing and other simple applications. Sooner or later we’ll have to make this choice for mission-critical enterprise applications too

Libraries may soon be building and managing their own data centers.

For more practical, technical explanations of cloud computing, check out the Wikipedia article the Anatomy of Cloud Computing the MIT Technology Review Briefing on Cloud Computing.

For a discussion of problems and concerns about the digital cloud, read: How Secure is Cloud Computing? Security in the Ether Industry Challenges: The Standards Question