15 Ways to Tell Its Not Cloud Computing

 

If you peel back the label and its says “Grid” or “OGSA ” underneath… its not a cloud.

If you need to send a 40 page requirements document to the vendor then… it is not cloud.

If you can’t buy it on your personal credit card… it is not a cloud

If they are trying to sell you hardware… its not a cloud.

If there is no API… its not a cloud.

If you need to rearchitect your systems for it… Its not a cloud.

If it takes more than ten minutes to provision… its not a cloud.

If you can’t deprovision in less than ten minutes… its not a cloud.

If you know where the machines are… its not a cloud.

If there is a consultant in the room… its not a cloud.

If you need to specify the number of machines you want upfront… its not a cloud.

If it only runs one operating system… its not a cloud.

If you can’t connect to it from your own machine… its not a cloud.

If you need to install software to use it… its not a cloud.

If you own all the hardware… its not a cloud.

If it takes 20 slides to explain…. its not a cloud [update: 4:58 4th February 2009]

with input from Alexis Richardson , of CohesiveFT’s Elastic Server on Demand , nicely written up here by Phil Wainewright.

image courtesy of Mike9Alive under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license