InformationWeek is gearing up for its co-hosted event, Cloud Connect, in two weeks in Santa Clara.
This week, they released some articles to preview sessions and tracks offered at Cloud Connect.
One of great interest to me is “cloudonomics”, or how to leverage cloud offerings in the best fiscal sense. As a cloud services provider, I want my prices to be fair and appealing while still having a little income left after paying for the utilities. I also want to help my clients determine when to use their existing servers for hosting, and when it makes more sense to utilize the cloud.
Joe Weinman’s piece in InformationWeek does a fair job assessing the pros and cons of using only self-hosted solutions, only cloud solutions, or a hybrid of the two.
To get a more detailed look at the numbers driving cloud pricing, check out another blog by Joe Weinman.
The article uses the example of several industries that see variable demand for their services at specific points during the year; retailers peaking in the Christmas season, tax preparers in February through April, and mortgage lenders being busier during late spring and summer. The article assesses that those industries have a typical baseline for data/hosting services that can be met with their current setup. During their peak periods, however, they could easily burst into the cloud for pay-as-you-use services.
In a specific and recent example, the State of Iowa offered its own “Cash for Clunkers” rebate program for consumers looking for new, energy efficient appliances. Consumers could call a hotline or access a website to secure a rebate code for use when shopping.
The website went live at 8:00 AM on a Monday morning, with enough rebate codes for about 9,000 people. ($2,775,150) At 4:00 PM, the State reported that the rebates had been exhausted.
During the rebate claim process, consumers experienced downtime on the website, broken links and much frustration. While the State of Iowa reportedly contracted out the rebate process and didn’t use their own servers to route traffic, a hybrid solution that burst into the cloud may have helped consumers move on with their day earlier than 4:00 PM.
I’m excited about helping clients use existing infrastructure to meet their needs, and even more excited to show them how cloud services can be a critical component in efficient data management.