What is “the cloud?” This is certainly a question you’ve asked or wondered. You may have received a few explanations too. When searching online, the first resulting definition used the words “Paradigm” and “Ubiquitous” … this does not clear things up for me. Let’s take care of that. If you’ve hear about “the cloud” you’ve likely heard the phrase “on premise” as well. If not, that’s ok. Defining both will help understanding each of them. So what exactly do those terms mean? Simple. Cloud vs On Premises is where your data is stored or resides. On premises data is housed locally in an environment that you (or your trusted IT vendor) maintain. Data is on your computers or servers and is easily accessible. Cloud is similar to its name. Data in the cloud resides offsite, somewhere outside of your home or office. Typically it is on a server, in a data center, miles away from you. Cloud data is accessible to you via a web browser or application.