Web-based computer programs, unlike their desktop counterparts, are always up to date and are instantly available, no matter where the user is or what operating system she's running. That's why cloud computing--so called because it involves software that resides in the "clouds" of the Internet--has caused a "tidal shift in how people are actually creating software," says Kevin Lynch, chief software architect at Adobe Systems. (For a review of Nicholas Carr's new book on cloud computing, see "The Digital Utility.") But cloud computing has drawbacks: users give up the ability to save data to their own hard drives, to drag and drop items between applications, and to receive notifications, such as appointment reminders, when the browser window is closed.
