SENDING YOUR FILES through the cloud conjures up images of data disappearing into the ether, a jumble of facts amidst an airy space filled with amorphous ones and zeros, but fear not as boffins could have just made the cloud easily mappable.

At a recent conference, a Georgia Institute of Technology scientist described a system that would let cloud computing users customise the path their data takes as it travels through the cloud resources environment.

One imagines such a facility allowing users to find the best route through the Internet in much the same way as users would find the best location for files and folders using Microsoft's Windows Explorer or the Apple Mac's Finder. Perhaps it should be called cloud explorer?

According to Technology Review, based at that other centre for computing research the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the Georgia Tech team calls the system Transit Protocol. They are developing the protocol by using it in conjunction with cloud based experimental work.

The protocol lets users set a path that matches the needs of a specific application because one route through the Internet might be better or cheaper than another for sending the different quantities and types of data involved. µ