Cloud computing — everything old is new again

Cloud computing, an ability to get computing power without installing and managing a system locally, is growing fast. Think back to the 1960s and 1970s to time-shared computing systems and you will see a similar architecture. The difference is the elimination of the ‘connect’ charges, more functionality for cost paid among a number of things. The down side is there are security issues that need to be addressed, the charges for concurrent users, ‘search’ and more can quickly add up if you are not careful. Still it is a feasible, cost-effective way to take advantage of a library management system and other software as service offerings. I’ll be giving a talk about this at the Computers in Libraries 2012 conference in March in Washington D.C.