Screw you, Cloud Computing. Bring on Fog Computing!

If you've missed the trendwagon for cloud computing, don't worry, it's already passi(C) . Cisco has been thinking deeply about the limitations of the cloud server approach, which for better or for worse still remains just a variation on the classic server-client relationship.

Modern 3G and 4G cellular networks simply aren't fast enough to transmit data from devices to the cloud at the pace it is generated, and as every mundane object at home and at work gets in on this game, it's only going to get worse. Luckily there's an obvious solution: Stop focusing on the cloud, and start figuring out how to store and process the torrent of data being generated by the Internet of Things (also known as the industrial Internet) on the things themselves, or on devices that sit between our things and the Internet.

Marketers at Cisco Systems Inc. have already come up with a name for this phenomenon: fog computing.

Added bonus: clouds bring rain and unhappy weekends. But fog brings vampires .