Comments on: Risks of running in the cloud http://www.xaprb.com/blog/2011/04/23/risks-of-running-in-the-cloud/ Stay curious! Thu, 02 May 2013 12:36:53 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.5.1 By: Xaprb http://www.xaprb.com/blog/2011/04/23/risks-of-running-in-the-cloud/#comment-19311 Xaprb Mon, 25 Apr 2011 22:50:22 +0000 http://www.xaprb.com/blog/?p=2299#comment-19311 I’ve been beating the over-subscription-in-the-cloud drum for a while, but I predict that when it becomes a reality, other people will get credit for being the sooth sayers :)

]]> By: John http://www.xaprb.com/blog/2011/04/23/risks-of-running-in-the-cloud/#comment-19310 John Mon, 25 Apr 2011 20:49:58 +0000 http://www.xaprb.com/blog/?p=2299#comment-19310 You have it right. “The Cloud” could be a useful tool, but really it shifts the risks and costs rather than avoiding them. How much down time will it take to erase the “savings” many of the companies have gained by not managing their own infrastructure?

If people are going to use it for critical systems they have to accept that they no longer have control over the physical infrastructure so they have to do a better job of designing their software to handle the possibility that the “hardware” will go away. Or slow down due to over-subscription (which is a key piece of the cloud that we haven’t run into problems with yet as far as I know but I guarantee that is coming. Cable was a blazingly fast internet access method for a while). That takes more highly skilled developers, which means money.

Once again, something new came out that made creating software systems appear easy. And the crowd went wild for it. And once again, it’s limitations demonstrated that writing GOOD software systems is not easy. No matter what tool you use.

]]> By: Xaprb http://www.xaprb.com/blog/2011/04/23/risks-of-running-in-the-cloud/#comment-19308 Xaprb Mon, 25 Apr 2011 18:46:56 +0000 http://www.xaprb.com/blog/?p=2299#comment-19308 Yeah, “the cloud” is just absurd. It meant something before the marketing folks jumped on it and started slapping the label on anything with an on/off button. I think “the cloud” will burn off and drift away, and what will be left is the realization that controlling infrastructure through APIs is a good idea.

]]> By: Jeff Saxe http://www.xaprb.com/blog/2011/04/23/risks-of-running-in-the-cloud/#comment-19305 Jeff Saxe Mon, 25 Apr 2011 05:08:03 +0000 http://www.xaprb.com/blog/?p=2299#comment-19305 I know you’re talking here about IT-savvy consumers of cloud services here, perhaps up to the C-level executive. And yes, it’s good that such customers are now seriously thinking about backup plans, temporary alternate sites, graceful degradation, and all the painful little things they don’t want to plan for when their magical, always-on cloud provider turns not so on for a while.

But I don’t think the average person has a terribly clear notion of what “the cloud” even means. Have you seen those couple of recent Microsoft commercials? Obviously Microsoft is late to yet another party, and they want to show everyone they “get it” and can do cloud services as well as anyone. So what two applications do they show, in each case with a catch phrase, “To the cloud!”? One has a mom fixing up her unruly family’s group portrait by copying-and-pasting together two shots in a photo editor, and the other is a bored couple at the airport using a remote desktop app to watch a TV show recorded on their PC at home. Neither one of these is a cloud service, dang it! I guess it’s understandable, because when you get down to it, the cloud is pretty boring, and it doesn’t really make good television. “Look! I can work on a spreadsheet from two computers without putting it on a flash drive or emailing it to myself!” is not really a riveting plotline for a 30-second spot.

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