Here is an example. When you use your browser to search for something, such as through Google, do you know where the servers that are processing your search request are located? Do you even care where the servers are located? No, of course not. You have a browser window open, you type in what you are searching for and the results come back. The search could have been run in California or London for all you know. It does not matter where these servers are located because you are not using a telephone dialup to get to the Internet like back in the early 1990s. You are using high-speed broadband. As we all know the speed difference is significant. Instead of moving a paragraph per second, you can now move a book per second with broadband.
http://www.reliableplant.com/Read/24569/Cloud-computing-smart-manufacturing
This “pay by the drink” scenario will revolutionize manufacturing in the same way that the Internet has already revolutionized our everyday and business lives