If you believe the technology press, we are either witnessing a seismic shift in IT -- the kind that comes around every decade or so -- or a retreat to the dark ages of the mainframe, dumb terminal, and service bureau rebranded as the cloud, Web browser, and software as a service (SaaS). Whichever it is, there is no doubt cloud computing has arrived. A September 2008 report published by the Pew Internet & American Life Project found that an astounding 69% of all Internet users have used at least one cloud service already.