On paper, cloud-based computing and storage should be a win-win for virtually any business: On-demand and near-limitless processing and storage capacity with a la carte pricing has removed much of the guesswork from tech companies trying to determine where to allocate limited financial and human resources. The biggest providers, Amazon, Google, and Microsoft, are unlikely to fold anytime soon.
But is the cloud the best solution for every business? According to famed web programmer David Heinemeier Hansson, the answer is an emphatic no.
Hansson, the Ruby on Rails web framework creator and co-owner of 37signals, the company behind project management software Basecamp, announced last year that he and his company would be abandoning the web for in-house service hosting with a projected savings of $7 million over the next five years. This company's product runs online and would be ideally suited to the cloud on paper, but the cost-benefit ratio the cloud provides for long-term established businesses like his didn’t impress upon closer examination.
While praising the ability to bring multiple servers online within seconds is, in his words, “crazy, and kind of amazing,” the associated costs and increased complexity ended up making cloud-based systems more trouble than they were worth. The risk of server outages, skyrocketing costs for file transfers, and often opaque invoices for services rendered all made the costs of in-house hosting seem like a bargain.
“Given how much money we're saving owning our own hardware, we can afford to dramatically over-provision our server needs, and then when we need more, it still only takes a couple of weeks to show up,” said Hansson in a blog post.
Although Hansson has continued encouraging businesses to migrate away from the cloud, he acknowledges that newer companies can benefit from its relative flexibility.
“I still think the cloud has a place for companies early enough in their lifecycle that the spend is either immaterial or the risk that they won't be around in 24 months is high,” he said.
While a single example from a well-established developer doesn’t invalidate the offered value of the cloud, as Hansson said, it’s essential to factor in the needs of your business versus the added costs and complexity of cloud-based services. We also can‘t stress enough how essential factors like cloud backups are for businesses that self-host their workstations, databases, and production storage.
“Consider whether you have a service that really benefits from constantly scaling the capacity up and down. Then have a serious look at what your own cloud exit could look like. We pulled out seven applications in six months. You can do that too,” concluded Hansson.
Wondering whether or not the cloud would benefit your business? Looking for a way to bring your hosting back in-house? Nodal can help! Contact us today.