It's funny how quickly things change. Just six months ago, cloud technology was regarded with suspicion in many quarters, outside the vendors touting their cloud offerings. Privately, many people told me they were on the fence-some viewed it as nothing more than the natural evolution or resurrection of the application service provider (ASP) model, while others didn't quite understand-or didn't want to understand-what it offered. Equally, there were some who could see its benefits, and as we near the end of 2011, it's safe to say that cloud education and research have made that attitude more prevalent.