Information technology’s next decade is looking increasingly cloudy – a forecast that could change the way people and organizations store, manage and access their information digitally.

The reason is the rise of “cloud computing.” A somewhat amorphous term, cloud computing refers to individuals and organizations linking to other computers and servers – usually via the Internet – to share information and computing capacity. The “cloud” metaphor represents those networked links, which are sometimes compared with electricity running through the grid from central power plants to individual users.