Clouds Ahead

Yes, the USPS does do some last 5 mile delivery for USP, and that is because the postal service can do it cheaper (they are going to your mailbox anyway). Some day there will be a dynamic cloud system that will deliver your web application through the lowest bidder.

Not yet though, because we are still in a time of  ‘app-lock-in.’ Google, Microsoft, Amazon and many hosting companies are all competing for cloud domination.  But if server cycles can be better utilized in a bigger cloud, than why not have them compete to offer you the best deal.  This could work to the advantage of your application.  Here is how it might go:

You state the amount of money that you are willing to spend on your hosting, say $0.03 per hour (or less perhaps).  Also state any preferences you have for speed (a minimum response time) and other quality of service options.  Your app is ready to go (in some universal format) and let the bidding begin.

• Cloud Provider “G” will take on the first 20 requests per second (or cycles up to ###) for $0.01 /hr
• Cloud Provider “M” will take on the next 30 requests per second (or cycles up to ###) for $0.02 /hr
• Cloud Provider “A” will take on the next 60 requests per second (or cycles up to ###) for $0.03 /hr

If a SaaS provider can offer better and cheaper application hosting service, then move what you can out into the cloud.

A cloud is better if it:

• does not “lock you in” so that your app can only run in a proprietary cloud environment
• gives you a better SLA
• scales as you need (with out having to anticipate peak request times and spin-up severs before hand)
• lets you sleep better

A cloud is cheaper if it:

• lets you spend less time developing your application
• reduces your hardware and maintenance (TCO) costs.
• lets you focus on ROI instead of “just Keep it Running”
• lets you pay for (only) what you use.

The Application lock-in issue is big right now,  and although Amazon (S3+EC2) and others (enomaly…) allow you to run any application, they also force you to manage exactly what level of service you want, and don’t (at this time) handle spikes for you.  Google AppEngine is set up to handle the spikes (within quotas) but the code you write is somewhat specialized and can not easily be moved over to any other cloud service providers.  When standards are established … everyone will have their own! ;P

To do: Add ‘cloud’ to your over used tech term list.