What lies behind the cloud? Part 2
Okay. Now that I have had a hard look at the big players, I will seek some cloud vendors who are my type – I mean the humble small business. But that seems like a very difficult task. There are no humble cloud providers; at least they don’t show up on the Google search. I am left with no option but to have a quick relook at the top honchos and once again I have my pain points. Is there a way I can compromise?
Hardware Vs Maintenance Costs
Let me first harp on the advantages of cloud computing. The first factor which makes me tilt towards the cloud is flexibility. This fact has been mentioned by zillions of experts and needs no elaboration. You can start off with a small bit of cloud and then expand as required. The problem starts when you actually take up your humble website to a big cloud. First off, there is no way I can talk to a human being. It seems like the cloud vendors want us to interact with a machine or get out of their space. Another smart way according to them is to get hold of a partner.
Finding a partner for hosting on big clouds
It’s quite easy to find the partner networks of big players. In my opinion it’s a cosy arrangement. The partners offer everything from setting up the cloud instances to maintaining your website. You can simply put your legs up and relax – quite a utopian solution. Of course there is a hitch. You got to pay for the services rendered. What actually happens is that the money you save from hardware is compensated by what you pay for the services. Moreover, you seem to lose all control, because the people who provide the services to tackle the big cloud always keep you guessing about what really goes on behind the scene. It’s all quite frustrating.
Sharing the cloud
I admit that Cloud services can reduce costs. Good for the cloud, I must confess. But how do I manage to get into that wee bit of cloud, in the first instance? Big players claim that they give you a small piece of action but their tiny bit is way too large for me. I don’t need a 2 Giga Hertz monster with 8 GB of RAM. I need something niftier.
Here is the great news. I found that you can share a piece of cloud just like you do in a traditional datacenter. This I suppose is a fantastic way to sample cloud offering before making a full scale jump. Additional, I could avoid the setting up pitfalls which seem to trip small businesses like me. You can have a look at Webkeepers for more information on dedicated servers in a cloud. Incidentally this is called VPS or
Virtual Private server.
Conclusion
My search for a small cloud player turned out to be quite a task. Virtual Private server kind of arrangement seems to work for small businesses. In my next post I will have a look at what to look for in a cloud vendor in the absence of any clear guidelines.
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About the Guest Author:
Sankarambadi Srinivasan, ‘Srini’, is a maverick writer, technopreneur, geek and online marketing enthusiast rolled into one. He began his career as a Naval weapon specialist. Later, he sold his maiden venture and became head of an offshore Database administration company in Mumbai. He moved on as Chief Technology Officer of one of the largest online entities, where he led consolidation of 300 online servers and introduced several Web 2.0 initiatives. He holds a Master’s degree in Electronics and Telecommunication.
