When—and When Not—to Use the Cloud
Joe Weinman · 2012
Most companies and applications can benefit from the cloud computing in various ways. Although there are many different compelling cases for clouds, there also are a variety of use cases where clouds may not be the best solution. This chapter lists the power of the cloud to generate benefits in accordance with multiple canonical scenarios and presents cases where the cloud is inappropriate. The cloud may offer a competency that a person or a firm does not have and this may be at the infrastructure layer, the software layer, or at multiple layers. Examples of specific competencies present in the cloud are tax preparation algorithms embedded in an online tax service; search algorithms and an indexed Web; information regarding flight schedules, prices and also expected delays; stock market ticker data; and algorithms for finding matches, between people and movies and between people and people. Although, the cloud has many services that can be flexibly combined, users of a custom architecture must make sure that the application really is unique and that the effort and cost to run a unique architecture that may often be underutilized makes up for a potentially slight loss in performance. The cloud's ability to enhance end-user experience via a geographically dispersed footprint should also be considered. Additional considerations include the relative unit cost of a do-it-yourself approach versus the cloud, competencies in data center operations, and cash flow.