Spouting Shite

Cloud Computing is not suitable for everybody.

My excitement for Cloud Computing is not matched universally…it is not the answer to everybody’s problems. I already described on the AWS user group discussion list how it is not helpful for small web sites. Well, perhaps it is true that distributed computing ‘as a service’ is not suitable for large organisations too.

Some large organisations are uncomfortable with critical data residing on a cloud outside of their four walls. This is true for many reasons, notably availability and security. So, despite the clear economics of cloud computing, the following objections will be hard to completely overcome:

• SLA & availability: large organisations will never trust anyone other than their own staff to maintain critical apps.
• Compliance: i.e. the need for complete auditability of data
• Privacy & legal requirements: most of the commercial cloud computing service providers use hardware which resides in the US. These servers to the Patriot Act - something which may not appeal to firms based outside the US.
• Liability: Who bares the financial burden due to a delay or loss of data?

Of course, these opjections mean that larger organisations will be relucatant to use a commercial cloud comuting provider (such as AWS) but there is another option — creating a “cloud-style” utility computing environment within the enterprise.