
Amazon crash reveals 'cloud' computing actually based on data centers - jfruh
http://www.itworld.com/cloud-computing/158517/amazon-crash-reveals-cloud-computing-actually-based-data-centers
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Terretta
From the article:

> _"Relying on someone else's IT to keep your business up and operating
> perfectly is like walking across Times Square without looking at traffic and
> relying on every bus, taxi bike and pedicab to give you the right of way
> automatically."_

I enjoyed a quote I read on here the other day, paraphrased for symmetry:

 _Relying on someone else's Information Technology to keep your business up
and operating perfectly is like relying on someone else's Structural
Engineering to build and operate the skyscraper you use for your office._

Your business is unique in some way. Choose the right partners to rely on to
do what they do well, so you can work on doing what you do better.

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misterbwong
The title reads like it's an article from The Onion and I blame marketers for
that. "Cloud computing" is no more than letting someone else handle your
server layer to varying degrees. Yes, there may be some bells and whistles
here and there but, at it's core, they are still servers sitting in someone's
colo. They aren't magical, they don't "manage themselves", and they aren't
immune to downtime. You still need to _work_ to ensure stability. In some
cases, you will even need to work _harder_ to do so.

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sliverstorm
What's missing from "cloud computing" infrastructure is not some critical step
that Amazon forgot.

It's a variety of competing "cloud" providers, allowing folks who run their
services "in the cloud" to spread their machines/applications across multiple
_businesses_.

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johngalt
Complex systems fail, regardless of who owns the hardware.

~~~
geekam
Simplicity is prerequisite for reliability. E. W. Dijkstra [1]

[http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Edsger_W._Dijkstra#How_do_we_te...](http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Edsger_W._Dijkstra#How_do_we_tell_truths_that_might_hurt.3F_.281975.29)

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wazoox
It seems that many people forgot how and why Amazon began to market its cloud
computing solutions. Amazon had to build its infrastructure to support the
Christmas rush, and its platform is idle most of the rest of the time. So they
decided to sell these available computing resources.

Of course, this platform may fail, but whatever infrastructure you're relying
upon it may fail at some point. Even when you're relying upon trucks to ship
your products in time, having a backup rail plan may be a good idea.

However, I hope you business is mostly idle around Christmas, because there's
little doubt that Amazon will serve its own applications first, so you'd
better have a serious backup plan...

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uast23
Everything was always a cloud, isn't it!! It's just that now it has become
more prominent. Otherwise, except the ease of deployment and maintenance how
is the current 'cloud based' setup different from the older 'non-cloud' based
setups. For an end user the content always used to come from an unknown place
which you can call a cloud or a server based on your whims and it still comes
from the same unknown place 'The Cloud'. And for the vulnerabilities, it
doesn't care what the weight of the host is. Even a personal hosting setup is
equally susceptible.

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dbuizert
And this is why the business created BS25999

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sdh
you mean our servers aren't in the sky?!

