Not saying that cloud over dedicated host is the answer. Saying that it is an important question (and the answer should be application-specific).
When you find your business decisions going against the herd, you should really ask yourself WHY you're going against the herd, because our herd is pretty smart. That doesn't mean you should never go against, just that you should make sure you're thinking it through.
I did receive that from the upper portion of your response. I was just eloboarting further for the OP as your first did insulate that de facto equals to correctness. Yes precisely but one with such a question has already deomstated anayalsis to a level of a threshold where such alternatives would not hwve been considered if not for the existence of prior sufficient evidence for valid uncertainty of accepted standard.
When you find your business decisions going against the herd, you should really ask yourself WHY you're going against the herd, because our herd is pretty smart. That doesn't mean you should never go against, just that you should make sure you're thinking it through.