Just who is abandoning the cloud, and why?

We’ve just read this Wired article on tech start-ups abandoning public cloud and finding it vastly more cost-effective to go in-house. Reading the article you can see precisely why the companies featured made the decision, not only on financial grounds but also because of their sector. Abandoning the cloud becomes a very different equation when you don’t have expertise on tap and have to buy in the help you need.

And what is this cloud they’re abandoning, anyway?

But before looking at those differences, let’s look at precisely what is meant by ‘the cloud’. There is no one definition. To bring it down to its barest principles, let’s say it refers to a repository of information held in a location other than your own machine and accessed via the internet. There’s quibble room there but for most purposes that definition is a good starting point.

Amazon or bust?

Reading the article, it’s easy to gain the impression that the only cloud option is a) Amazon, and b) costs thousands of pounds or dollars a year. The cloud is many things to many people. There is no need to go to a third-party provider if you’re confident about running your own server; on the other hand, well-run cloud provision can provide headache-free business-boosting services to a company with no interest in maintaining their own services.

Business Decisions

This article isn’t intended to be a minute run-down of the pros and cons of cloud services but to provide a balance to the Wired article and suggesting why abandoning the cloud might not be a smart move for everyone. Yes, if you’re a company oozing technical knowledge, and with the cashflow to buy and maintain all the kit you need, using public cloud services is by no means a foregone conclusion. But for many, many small companies that want the power of cloud provision together with the peace of mind that their services are being properly looked after on top-spec kit by people who know their onions, then it’s definitely worth looking into the specifics.

The OpenSure cloud

I wouldn’t be doing my job properly if I didn’t mention that we offer cloud services. Please get in touch if you’d like to discuss tranferring some or all of your services to our servers. They’re wholly owned by us (no reselling here), in a London data centre and 100% run on renewable energy. We won’t be abandoning the cloud any time soon.