Cloud is a term which has, in the past year, become very strongly associated with software innovation, low cost, and flexibility. On the cloud, you do not run software locally on your machine, but it's hosted on a server on the web. This allows you to connect to the same instance from different devices, be it mobile, iPads, or from your laptop. At the same time, as it's accessible from practically anywhere where the internet is available, cloud solutions are encouraging the collaboration and sharing of information, in this case, data analytics.
The cloud is the future for various reasons, but at the same time, it introduces associated risks: if the data is not hosted on my premises or devices, where is it hosted? Who else has access to it, and how can I control or limit this? There are also regulatory requirements about where data is organized...