GoGrid response to cloud computing hype article

After a Michael Sheehan of GoGrid and I had a brief exchange on Twitter regarding Chuck Goolsbee's article on Cloud Computing hype, Michael wrote the following post in response to the article.

Well, I thought that I could get away with no more articles in 2008. I guess that I was mistaken. I just read a good article by Chuck Goolsbee on SearchDataCenter.com titled: “Don’t buy cloud computing hype: Business model will evaporate” and I figured that I would put in my 2 cents on some of the items mentioned within.

Goolsbee takes a very pragmatic approach to “slicing through” traditional datacenter hosting (using Occam’s razor to boot), so that he could evaluate each and every aspect of what is contained in a physical environment. To summarize (and I’m paraphrasing, hopefully accurately), he mentions:

GoGrid blog post

Don't buy cloud computing hype: Business model will evaporate

Compelling devil's advocate view of cloud computing. Author's definition of cloud computing: data center on-demand.

From what you read and hear of the buzz surrounding cloud computing, it sounds like a model that will just steamroller over the whole data center industry and make everything we've built over the past two decades obsolete. It will allow IT to scale without effort, at minimal cost! It is an on-demand data center with zero capital outlay! It slices, dices and juliennes! But even in the best-case scenario it seems like it can only really solve a small subset of the industry's needs. In the worst case it will be a punch line for lame jokes a few years from now, much like other over-hyped buzzwords from the past.

Search Data Center article

The great paradigm shift of cloud computing is not self-service...

This is the best article on real cloud benefits I have read this year.

There has been significant discussion over the short life of the term "cloud computing" about how little it differs from concepts like managed hosting and ASPs. And there is some truth to these observations; if you really look closely, what are the key differences between EC2 and a more traditional managed hosting provider? Some would say multi-tenancy, self-service and pay-per-use (including billing and elastic capacity). With specific regard to EC2, I would tend to agree.

(I would also hasten to point out that Amazon provides some very PaaS-like services in conjunction with EC2, such as Simple Queuing Service (SQS) and SimpleDB.)

CNet article

Cloud computing not the answer for every business

Cloud computing not the answer for every business

This article hits the nail on the head regarding what works in a cloud environment.

Companies like Amazon and Google have been touting cloud computing as the future of IT, but customers need to ask questions before doing their computing "in the cloud."

Cloud computing refers to the practice of running business software applications on someone else’s network. Instead of buying its own servers and running software on them, a company contracts with a third party vendor that provides them with the computer processing capacity they need at the vendor’s data center. The computing capacity is available as needed, much the way electricity is provided by a utility.

Suite101.com article