IMHO, I think this misses the larger motivator for moving to these services. I don't think you can approach the Cloud as just "a less expensive data center", because you're missing what I believe is the real motivator, "developer productivity". And I don't think this is just Cloud, it's DevOps, Microservices, CI/CD, Serverless, etc. I consult in these areas at large enterprises and have a front row seat to how a lot of these problems are approached. What's particularly interesting is the common thread of developers moving faster by automating human processes outside development. For example, if you have mature CI/CD, you've automated all your testing to the point you no longer need a QA team of manual testers. If you move to the Cloud, you no longer need a data center team. Etc.
Now it's obvious that companies just want to save money, but another reality is that those human processes just cannot compete on the service they offer to their customers, developers. You could have the best QA team in the world, but compared to a dev team armed with mature testing practices and CI, it's seconds vs. hours for developers to get the feedback they need in order to ship.
Infrastructure hardware is cheaper than ever these days in order to compete with the Cloud, while good developers are at an all time premium. When infrastructure is no longer a slow, scarce resource, it enables developers to spend more time perfecting their applications and experimenting with new approaches. So I suggest you not approach the Cloud as purely a cost saving measure for the infrastructure department, and really think about how transformative it can be in changing your IT processes.
oh absolutely. But you can also do the same thing with equipment you own. I run mostly VM's because it's easy to spin one up, test something, and kill it. My problem isn't virtualized infrastructure, it's letting go of control, for no actual gain.
Now it's obvious that companies just want to save money, but another reality is that those human processes just cannot compete on the service they offer to their customers, developers. You could have the best QA team in the world, but compared to a dev team armed with mature testing practices and CI, it's seconds vs. hours for developers to get the feedback they need in order to ship.
Infrastructure hardware is cheaper than ever these days in order to compete with the Cloud, while good developers are at an all time premium. When infrastructure is no longer a slow, scarce resource, it enables developers to spend more time perfecting their applications and experimenting with new approaches. So I suggest you not approach the Cloud as purely a cost saving measure for the infrastructure department, and really think about how transformative it can be in changing your IT processes.