Las Vegas, NV / LTPACT 2008
This week I am attending LT Pact 2008 in Las Vegas. I just attended a presentation by James Staten, Principal Analyst – Forrester Research Inc. which covered cloud computing. It set my wheels in motion and actually made me think about the future of Hosting as we know it.
Before warning you about this new monster and threat to Web Hosting, I’ve been told by my good friend John P. (CMO at Layered Technologies) that there is really nothing to worry about if you are a Web host as long as you start dabbling and learning right now. Note to web hosts: Start learning about cloud computing ASAP.
If you aren’t familiar with cloud computing, here’s a brief layman’s explanation. Take a whole bunch of servers and make them work as one giant cohesive machine at a price that is cheaper than current solutions to consumers for just a single dedicated server.
Now that you know what a cloud is, how can it benefit you and your business?
Let’s pretend you run a successful online store.
Problem: Christmas is your big sales time of the year. Last year you ran a special offer that bogged down your shared web hosting account.
Solution: Cloud Computing.
IT’S CHEAP.
Break out your credit card and head over to LayeredTechnologies.com or Amazon.com or any number of other providers offering Cloud Computing. Select your options (at LT you can get cPanel installed for a few bucks more per month) and then wait for the setup emails to arrive.
Purchasing and provisioning takes roughly a few hours from Layered Technologies. It may take longer from Amazon as I’ve no experience with them. You have now purchased a slice of a Cloud. Yes, a slice. You didn’t think you would get the whole pie for $49.95/mo did you? That slice is scalable though and you can own the entire pie if you would like. I’ll explain more below.
SETUP IS IDENTICAL TO A DEDICATED OR SHARED HOST.
Once your setup emails arrive, it’s time to setup your online store and get it operational.
Now that you are setup and operational, you’ll find your site works about the same as before.
Last year your store ran slow during that red-hot promotion you ran. This year you are determined that will not happen again. Just before your promotion runs this year, you upgrade with more processing power. You decide to jump up to the $99.95/mo plan.
Now the Red Sea is about to part and you will be enlightened to the flexibility and scalability of Cloud Computing.
SCALABILITY ON DEMAND. I MEAN RIGHT NOW.
In the good ole days of hosting (right now), you purchase a load balancing solution, multiple servers, and then somehow make it all play nice (usually you hiring a managed services company or an IT professional).
Expensive and time consuming to say the least.
But you didn’t need to do it this way. You just upgraded your Cloud to twice the power without changing servershiring an IT guy, or buying load balancers. Now you have the equivalent of twice the power as before. Not only that, you did it instantly.
Think about that for a moment.
Your promotion now run safely in knowing you have enough power to handle the additional traffic to your site (also known as the DIGG effect). The promotion is a huge success and traffic spikes.
CHRISTMAS SEASON IS OVER.
Now what? Simply downgrade back to the $49.95/mo plan. Instantly. Now you have the backend savings of this promo as well because you don’t need to remove hardware, hire an IT guy, or anything else like that.
This of course is just an example of how this technology can be utilized. Certainly there are many others such as Web Hosts using the cloud to host even more shared web sites.
