- Datacenter Floorspace?
- Server Cabinets or Racks?
- Servers?
- CPU's?
- RAM?
- Disk Storage?
- Network Interconnects?
- UPS?
- Generator backups?
- Windows, Linux, or Unix Operating Systems?
- Shared resources?
Really? Are you sure? Of course they do. Don't stutter with glazed eyes and just say "It's the cloooud man.." It is the same things we've been doing for years. Same pig, different sauce. Its another buzz-word thought up by some ITIL/Six-Sigma/Business Analyst-wannabe techie type that wanted to coin a new slang phrase to make their self feel important. Whoop de do.
For a multi-million dollar line of business application, why would you even consider using a cloud vendor? Cost? Simplicity? Of course not. Only because you let a developer-type make infrastructure decisions. That is an epic fail. Selecting a cloud vendor means you do NOT have physical access to your production data, servers, or network infrastructure. Business App offline? Call your cloud vendor and pray they can get the issue(s) resolved to meet your SLA requirements. If you don't have physical control over your infrastructure, you can't *REALLY* guarantee anything to your customers because you ARE at the mercy of your *Buzzword* Vendor.
Don't get me wrong, cloud computing is useful in certain scenarios, but for hosting mission-critical applications, it is insane in my mind. I'm sure I'll get a bunch of flaming rebuttals posted here from cloud vendors and cloud-developer fanbois, but remember, you drank the Kool-Aid, and this is MY blog :-)
Toodles,
-Me
