Description

By Brett Burney

Extract: Not only does information want to be free, it apparently wants to be online as well.

The Web is ubiquitous in our everyday lives, and we are getting progressively more comfortable relinquishing our personal and business information to the wires and servers that make up the Internet.

For example, almost everyone today has a Web-based e-mail account. Messages are stored on a server somewhere on the Internet and we check our messages through a Web browser.

Many of us store family and personal photos online through services like Flickr (www.flickr.com) and Shutterfly (www.shutterfly.com); and we use online backup tools like Mozy (www.mozy.com) and Carbonite (www.carbonite.com).

The major advantage of storing your information "in the cloud"1 is that it is accessible from any computer connected to the Internet. You can access your e-mail and photos from the office, your home, or on the road.

The next stage in the web’s evolution may be extending these conveniences to business-critical applications, such as managing a firm’s discovery and litigation.