Cloud Computing: Control vs. Convenience

Building your own servers is the absolute fastest way to burn cash. Cloud computing

is really just a game of trading control for convenience. If you pick IaaS, you get the raw

power but have to manage the mess yourself. PaaS lets you just write code and ignore

the plumbing. And SaaS is pure convenience, but you own nothing. When traffic hits,

do not just buy a bigger computer; buy more small ones. That is the secret to horizontal scaling.

Just be careful, because once you pick a provider, that vendor lock-in is real and it hurts.