Is there really a cloud?

With all the talk today about "cloud computing", it is time to explain in layman's terms exactly what it is and where it lives.
First and foremost, there is no "cloud". There is no ethereal place in the sky that holds your computer information.

The computer information (data files), is on someone's computer. Simply said, if you have a Yahoo email account and you start up your computer and with your browser, (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari or whatever) you go to your email page at Yahoo to view your emails, you are looking at your reserved space assigned to you on Yahoo's computers (servers as they like to call them). This scenario holds true for Gmail, Hotmail, etc. You are, in effect, "in the cloud."
As long as the server Inbox contains something, it is in the cloud --- not on your computer. This holds for info in your "Sent" box or "Trash", if you don't empty it.

If you use an Email "client" (a separate application, like Mozilla Thunderbird) then it will download your email files and place them on your computer. Your info will no longer be in the cloud. The cloud problem arises, as we said on our opening web page, after six months. The information is open for scrutiny without a warrant. If you send or receive sensitive information, make sure it is encrypted. Using an Email client is the most secure way to process your emails. Download Thunderbird here. It's free.

A program like Dropbox will purposely upload your files into their servers and store them for you. They are considered in the cloud. They will tell you that your info is secure. And it is, in the sense that access to your files is by your password. But once your files are there, they are readable as easily as when they are on your computer. This is why we recommend you encrypt them first with Away RJN Cryptography because the six month limit applies here as well.
From Bruce Schneier Blog May 23, 2012; "The meta-issue is pretty simple. If you expect a cloud provider to do anything more interesting than simply store your files for you and give them back to you at a later date, they are going to have to have access to the plaintext. For most people -- Gmail users, Google Docs users, Flickr users, and so on -- that's fine. For some people, it isn't. Those people should probably encrypt their files themselves before sending them into the cloud."