About "in the cloud?" ... I hope you mean your/my PC when connected to the Internet ... and not me personally.
If you mean a PC connected to the Internet ... yes, it is 'in the cloud' as long as it has an IP address. There are several restrictions inherent in the current Internet facilities for finding resources, mostly this task is now done by using a service known as Domain Name Service (DNS) ... usually implemented in a program at the Server (most often a program called BIND, Berkely ... ). The database that this server uses is updated on a frequent basis and propagated to all of the DNS servers around the network. When you refer to something within the Internet ... eg //www.techstocks.com what actually happens is a program (usually called a 'resolver stub') is run on your PC, it is actually a 'client program' that makes a request to the DNS Server identified with an IP address in your TCP/IP setup ... the server does a database query and returns the unique IP address that corresponds to the 'name' that you want to access.
Most PCs that dial into the Internet have dynamically assigned IP address (an ISP usually has a pool of IP addresses that is less than the total number of potential users ... and 'recycles' the IP addresses for each connect session) ... and therefore PCs 'in the cloud' are NOT known to any DNS database and cannot be located by the normal methods .. there are workarounds (usually a program to read current IP address and post to a pre-defined site) ... so other users in a workgroup that you want to dynamically setup and tear down cannot easily share resources with your PC ... Most frequent solution to this 'problem' is a dedicated shared server that can be used like a BBS.
NDS can improve this situation immensely ... by providing another method of finding, managing, and even dynamically updating network resources ... without relying on the update & propogation delays in DNS databases.
Your question did make me think about just how much ground we have to cover before services like those provided by NDS will sell well ... it's going to take more time than most Novell shareholders want it to.
After thinking about your question ... I believe that the benefits of clustering might be even more difficult to understand ... is this difficult to see the value as well?
Here is some NDS info (from Novell) which is much more thorough and accurate than the 'readers digest version' in this post ... might explain it further and better.
URL for the NDS White Paper:
novell.com
Excerpt from the White Paper:
Many organizations have line-of-business applications running on a variety of platforms other than NetWare. These platforms include UNIX, Windows NT Server and OS/2. Novell plans to make all application servers manageable through NDS. Application servers integrated with NDS will allow publication of their resources through the NDS directory.
Users will then be able to identify and access applications on application servers in the same way they access other resources on the NetWare network. Administrators will be able to use NWAdmin, the NetWare global administration tool, to manage the application servers.
Directory Services Versus Name Services
NDS is a true directory service that offers far more than just domain-level name-to-address service. Name services, such as Microsoft Windows NT Domain Name Services, differ fundamentally from directory services such as NDS. Name services simply map network names to network addresses. They have limited use, primarily restricted to E-mail systems and user authentication. A major limitation of name services is that they are server specific. That is, they require the creation and maintenance of a different name database on each server. This greatly increases administration costs by requiring redundant administration. Directory services, on the other hand, provide a single point of administration for the entire network.
Like name services, directory services also map network names to network addresses. Unlike name services, however, directory services provide an advanced naming method that gives all network resources a clear and unique identity across the entire network. As a result, directory services provide global access to all network resources, regardless of their location. This provides users and administrators with transparent, location-independent access to printers, servers and other resources, as well as to other users. In addition, it simplifies network use and management by making network resources readily available to users regardless of their location or the location of the
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