I think what you are referring to is "Cloud Computing", it’s been around for a while, but only recently has started to see common use.
Here is the link for it on wiki:
Link
Basically, you store your files on a remote server instead of on a local hard drive. It’s not really new, just in the past wasn't really
practical.
In all honesty I thought by the name of the thread that it was going to be about generating electric power from a cloud... I am really
disappointed...
[edit on 24-5-2010 by halfmask]