The age of cloud computing has arrived, or so IBM would have us believe. For the past five years, the term has been bandied about by the technical and theoretical crowd, without much agreement on what it means.

One could say the concept is about as hazy as the term. Yet, everyone was getting excited about the new business opportunities and way of working. Now IBM has moved into the market by putting some bones on which to hang the term. This week the company announced it had ''introduced the industry's first set of commercial 'cloud' services and integrated products for the enterprise".

Here is what cloud computing means to IBM and what it could mean for your business. And if you are an IT worker it has huge implications for your job. At the most basic, IBM describes cloud computing as turning complex business processes into simple services. In more practical terms it is a way of outsourcing your IT department, or at least the software you use. Instead of buying software, or getting it created or adapted for your business, you simply turn on a virtual tap and pay for the software and related services that you use. If you ever need to use a piece of software just once in your natural life, then you just rent it for that period, instead of going out and buying it off the shelf.

"Cloud is an important new consumption and delivery model for IT and business services," said Erich Clementi, an IBM spokesperson. The IBM cloud, or "Smart Business" portfolio as it is branded, allows companies to choose what software services they want to use. It comes in three flavours depending on the size of your pocketbook and how much of your business you want to commit to IBM.

"All three offerings include IBM's service management system - a kind of air traffic control system for IT - that automates self-service, provisioning, monitoring as well as managing access and security for the cloud," the company says. I quote from the language used in the press release because you can clearly see IBM struggling to differentiate the service from the type of outsourcing that currently goes on, and to explain the concept to potential customers.

IBM says its tests have shown that business that jump on the cloud can reduce their IT labour costs by 50 percent, reduce provision cycle times from weeks to minutes and improve quality. For example, South Africa's Nedbank is currently using cloud technology to automate its business processes.

In addition by moving the cloud on to desktops, business can save up to 40 percent in IT support costs. What this means for the regular office worker is no software, other than an operating platform, will be stored in your desktop computer. Instead, if you need to write a document you simply use the software stored on the IBM cloud server.

IBM has been testing the cloud on desktops at Pike County Schools System in Eastern Kentucky, with 10,000 students in 27 schools, and 3,000 employees. The students used the private cloud desktops to access new course materials. In an endorsement blurb, the school claims it was able to save 62 percent of end-user support costs while providing equal access to education content across 27 schools and 2,000 desktops. The time to introduce new course materials has dropped from a year (send an IT person out to install it on the desktops), to immediate access through the IBM server.

I have previously written about cloud computing in this column, but only on a very theoretical level. Now that some sort of service is finally available (some will argue the cloud has been around a long time) it will be interesting to see whether it is actually useful for businesses in a big way. If it is, then IT staff should start looking for their escape hatches in one of the many service providers that will spring up in IBM's wake. If it is not, then cloud computing will simply become just another outsourcing alternative.

For more information on what the 'cloud' is, try visiting ibm.com/cloud, where you can find a good amount of resources and more definitions. Of course a simple search of the Internet will bring up loads of information, and debate, about cloud computing.

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Get ready for another Internet rush for a domain next year, when top level names are liberalised next year. The liberalisation will allow businesses and others to use just their chosen Internet name without the '.com', '.org' or any other top level domain suffix.

This means if I want to find a company's site I just type in 'Apple' for example (though I foresee problems with domain names could have more basic everyday use - for example ACE). The change by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has important implications in not only making your site easier to find, but also will help defeat the cyber-squatters, those who buy a key domain name with the purpose of selling it on for huge sums to those who need it. ICANN is due to start taking applications for the new top-level domain next year. Don't miss out.

Send any comments to Ahmed at elamin.ahmed@gmail.com