Cloud computing mean you don’t need to worry about software licensing, updates or security: your provider keeps track of the numbers and keeps the software patched and up to date. It’s scalable, so if business booms adding extra capacity or extra users is instant. And most importantly of all, it’s genuinely useful.

Cloud collaboration

Cloud-based services such as Huddle can make collaboration easier.

Where cloud computing really comes into its own is in collaboration and project management. Services such as Huddle and Basecamp do a superb job of organising every aspect of a project from conversations to deadlines and file sharing, replacing traditional games of email tag and hard disks stuffed with 200 versions of the same document with something much smoother, simpler and faster. Where there’s a niche you’ll often find a cloud service: for example, FreeAgent is an excellent online accounting suite designed for freelancers and small businesses.

There are multiple advantages to using cloud-based collaboration and project management services. The first is that having a central location means everyone always access up-to-date documents, data and discussions: there’s no danger of you working from the latest revision while your colleagues or clients are three versions behind.

The second is that you can access it from anywhere you get online, whether that’s your own desktop, your mobile phone or an iPad. Because wireless connectivity is almost everywhere, you don’t need to stuff hard disks with important files or sync endless notes to your mobile or tablet before you travel: just log in and look it up.

Thirdly, such applications integrate happily with others, so for example Basecamp integrates with a range of design applications for flatplanning, proofing, software development and so on as well as invoicing and accounting systems; Huddle connects to Microsoft Office and social networks including LinkedIn, Xing, Ning and Facebook; and FreeAgent works with PayPal, Google Apps, Basecamp and others.

Cloud capacity

Cloud computing can also help by adding capacity when you need it in a hurry. Even the world’s best hardware firms can’t double the size of a graphics rendering farm in a few hours, but if you suddenly find you need extra capacity the cloud can deliver it. For example, Axceleon’s EnFuzion3D connects your machine to Amazon’s EC2 cloud service, delivering remote rendering of images from applications including After Effects, Maya, Softimage XSI and 3DS Max. According to CEO Mary Keogh, the firm can build a 50-machine server farm in five minutes.

Axceleon isn’t the only firm offering remote rendering from big-name applications. Stack Studios’ FELIX promises to assign between 40 and 160 processor cores to each rendering task, and payment is in the form of credits: you pay up-front for FELIX credits and then spend them when you need some rendering done. The number of credits depends on three factors: quality, speed and resolution. The faster and better you want the render to be, the more credits it costs, and if you select the priciest rendering FELIX promises that “every deadline will be med with astonishing quality and speed”.

The word “speed” crops up again and again when cloud computing is being discussed. Nvidia’s RealityServer [http://www.nvidia.co.uk/object/realityserver_uk.html] “potentially shaves weeks or months off the design cycle” by creating “physically correct, photorealistic images in seconds instead of minutes or hours.”

The idea is simple: cloud computing does the heavy lifting, and the results are streamed to you or your client’s PC, netbook or even smartphone. For example, Nvidia says, “architects and designers can present their models to a client while discussing over a conference call. A client can shift to different viewpoints or even interactively walk through the space.” The project could be as small as a single product or as big as an entire city: the data is stored on and rendered by the RealityServer. That could be run by a commercial cloud computing provider, or you could do it yourself: RealityServer will happily run on your own servers to create your own company’s cloud.