Beware the cheap cloud provider
The point where costs of cloud computing drop significantly is the point where things get scariest. With no outside checks and balances what's to stop cut-rate cloud provides from cutting corners?
"We've got awesome Cisco gear that's not likely to fail, why waste money with redundant gear?"
"We're too busy to check on those backups, and what are the chances an end user will need one anyway? We'll check on them next month when we've got more time".
"Experience sys admins are so expensive. I can get two 'computer geniuses' out of college and still have change left over".
"Automatic updates are turned on for these servers. That should be enough security".
"It's too expensive putting in a decent wireless network link. Let's just chuck an ADSL link on another phone line and that'll be our redundant link".
"Proper background checks on staff are so expensive and time-consuming. That last interviewee seemed like a nice guy. I'm sure he's trustworthy."
I could go on. When you outsource to the cloud you get little or no insight into what goes on behind the scenes. Any or all of the above could be happening and you'd have no idea about it... until something fails. Amazon's had massive outages despite their totally redundant servers/networks/data centers. If they can't get it right, what are the chances Bob's Discount Cloud Store will?
