Cloud computing is nothing new. Apple’s got MobileMe,Google’s got Gmail,Documents,Calendar,etc.,and Microsoft has their Office Live service. They’re all great services in their own sense. However,Panda has gone and done something interesting with their idea of how to use cloud computing.
Antivirus programs depend on users frequently updating their definition files that contain a list of different viruses,malware,and trojans. Some of the better ones even have code that looks for programs that seem to be acting like a virus,but that is often a hit or miss (Symantic identifying Google or Microsoft or Adobe programs as malware). But the problem has always been on how to be able to quickly control the spread of a highyl infectious worm or virus.
Panda tries to address this with their cloud-based free antivirus program that they have released for Windows (sorry,only for Windows x86. It doesn’t work on 64-bit OSs,or Windows 7 yet). It utilizes this cloud to not only be able to quickly deploy out new definitions,but also become aware of and track the spread of viruses better so that they can contain it more quickly. It even maintains an offline cache of the definitions so you are protected when you are offline. (Found on Download Squad)