To understand cloud computing as a concept, forget the hard drive! There is no place in cloud computing for such a device, the hard drive is classified as local storage; it’s onsite and available to the network of users, but there isn’t designated hardware or a server for data storage included.
Cloud computing = internet. To be classed as cloud computing, the service must be accessed via a network and this is normally the internet. It takes its name from the days when the internet was depicted in presentations as a big fluffy cloud with wires.