In my opinion, “the cloud” is an idea to extend the control of the platform to a few big players in computing.
It is about compensating for their inability to significantly improve software to justify the high price. It is especially noticeable due to the Open Source apps first for Linux and now ported for Windows. For the average user there is no longer a need to purchase an upgraded office suite each time they change computers.
Some of the Open Source apps have functionality that the best close source does not. Example: regex find/replace in a spreadsheet. Gnumeric does that and it is ported for Windows and is free. (there are some things that Excel will do that Gnumeric will not)
BINGO!
don’t pay your monthly MS/Apple bill then no data for you.
ANYONE with confidential client data has to be insane to use the cloud system. It is just virtual servers with a HUGE liability stick.