Cloud Computing Both More Agile and Less Expensive
In Silicon Valley, the saying "it’s a dessert topping and a floor wax" is often used to puncture the pretensions of a product that promises that it can address every need; it’s applied to products claiming oxymoronic qualities. For example, the saying would be applied to a product that claimed to perform network management and word processing–two different, mismatched, and disharmonious functionalities.
I’m reminded of this when I listen to a debate common to cloud computing discussions. One person will assert that cloud computing is less expensive than the traditional IT infrastructure operations; a second person then says "cost isn’t really the issue for IT, what they really want from cloud computing is greater agility," meaning rapid provisioning of infrastructure resources…