What's the biggest headache you face when working with your computer? The answer may very well be "the computer itself." System crashes, data loss, hard drive failure -- there's a never ending parade of problems. There's a new movement afoot in the tech industry that promises to take some of those headaches away, and it's called "cloud computing." By now, many people have heard that term being bandied about, but questions are rife regarding what cloud computing is and what it means to the future. Read on for some answers.

Q: What is cloud computing?

A: In essence, cloud computing refers to a model in which the applications you use and the files you save are stored on remote servers. You access those applications and files with your PC, over a network, and in many cases, that network is the Internet.

Cloud computing is actually not a new concept -- it's an old one that's been made relevant again by the increasing availability of computer networks, particularly the Internet, and by the spread of "always on" broadband connections.

Q: What are the advantages of cloud computing?

A: There are many. As a computer user, you would no longer be dependent on one particular computer to access and work on your data. So long as you have a connection to your data through a network -- whether it's a local area network or the Internet -- you can retrieve your files and pick up where you left off. That's becoming increasingly important today, as people crave more mobility and often use more than one computer in the course of a day.

You also wouldn't have to worry about maintaining your applications or your files, and your concerns over the health of your local hardware would be lessened. The safety of your data is less dependent upon the...