The new issue of The Economist features a good primer on cloud computing, written by Ludwig Siegele, which looks at trends in data centers, software, networked devices, and IT economics and speculates about the broader implications for businesses and nations. A free pdf of the entire report is also available.

Siegele notes that the hype surrounding the term “cloud computing” may have peaked already – Google searches for the phrase have fallen after a big spike in July – but that “even if the term is already passé, the cloud itself is here to stay and to grow. It follows naturally from the combination of ever cheaper and more powerful processors with ever faster and more ubiquitous networks. As a result, data centres are becoming factories for computing services on an industrial scale; software is increasingly being delivered as an online service; and wireless networks connect more and more devices to such offerings.” The “precipitation from the cloud,” he concludes (milking the passé metaphor one last time), “will be huge.”