GoFuckYourself.com - Adult Webmaster Forum - View Single Post

raymor · 08-21-2009, 12:26 PM

Funny all of this arguing, basically half the people saying "clouds rock" and
the other half saying "clouds suck". Both are half right and half wrong.
First, "cloud" is largely a buzzword with little meaning - it refers loosely to
a wide ranging number of technologies. Anyone who makes any claim about
"cloud" without getting MUCH more specific about one certain technology is
talking out of their ass.

Before going into detail, let me give you the quick summary -
By building one of the most state of the art clouds around, we learned
a lot about clouds. Here's the one and only thing most adult webmasters
need to know about clouds:

YOU DO NOT NEED CLOUD. NO WEB SITE NEEDS CLOUD.
YOU DO NOT WANT A CLOUD. PERIOD.

Secondly, and more importantly, each of these technologies that people are
suddenly applying the "cloud" buzzword to has it's specific use. None are
particularly useful for the typical adult site. If you need more than 8TB or so
of drive space, there are a number of SAN technologies to consider. SAN is
one large topic that falls under the "cloud" group. If you have less than a few
TB of content, a standard RAID array is for you. You will get no benefit from
a "cloud" (SAN). Instead, it will only cost you more money and hurt performance.

If you DO have more than 8 TB of disk space, a SAN (cloud storage) may help
you. How can I say that no web site needs a cloud, but then say that if you need
to have more than 8TB of disk space a cloud may help? Because what you NEED
is to store a shitload of data. If you need to store 20TB, you know it, and you won't
be on GFY asking "do I need to store 20TB?" The storage is the need - the cloud
may be a reasonable solution to your need, but the cloud isn't the need - it's
the solution to a need you already know about. It's also likely that some other
solution will be better than any new buzzwords, but the point is you'll have no doubt
as to what you need - tons of storage - so you won't be blindly signing up for some
cloud service without knowing why.

Similarly, if you run superbowl.com you get almost zero traffic all year, then suddenly
you get huge traffic for just a few days out of the year. You NEED to have a shitload
of capacity only for a week, and you know it. There are lots of solutions, some of
them involving stuff that is now sold as "cloud". But again you'll know what your
need, or problem, is, and your trusted sysadmin will advise you on the best solution -
which may or may not have anything to do with clouds.

So you can stop wasting your time thinking about clouds and go take care of your
business. If your current server setup is working for you, you don't need to change it.
If it's not working for you, contact your sysadmin and ask about how to solve your
problem - not how to waste money on a cloud or any other "solution" to a problem
that you don't have.

08-21-2009, 12:26 PM
raymor Confirmed User Join Date: Oct 2002 Posts: 3,745	Funny all of this arguing, basically half the people saying "clouds rock" and the other half saying "clouds suck". Both are half right and half wrong. First, "cloud" is largely a buzzword with little meaning - it refers loosely to a wide ranging number of technologies. Anyone who makes any claim about "cloud" without getting MUCH more specific about one certain technology is talking out of their ass. Before going into detail, let me give you the quick summary - By building one of the most state of the art clouds around, we learned a lot about clouds. Here's the one and only thing most adult webmasters need to know about clouds: YOU DO NOT NEED CLOUD. NO WEB SITE NEEDS CLOUD. YOU DO NOT WANT A CLOUD. PERIOD. Secondly, and more importantly, each of these technologies that people are suddenly applying the "cloud" buzzword to has it's specific use. None are particularly useful for the typical adult site. If you need more than 8TB or so of drive space, there are a number of SAN technologies to consider. SAN is one large topic that falls under the "cloud" group. If you have less than a few TB of content, a standard RAID array is for you. You will get no benefit from a "cloud" (SAN). Instead, it will only cost you more money and hurt performance. If you DO have more than 8 TB of disk space, a SAN (cloud storage) may help you. How can I say that no web site needs a cloud, but then say that if you need to have more than 8TB of disk space a cloud may help? Because what you NEED is to store a shitload of data. If you need to store 20TB, you know it, and you won't be on GFY asking "do I need to store 20TB?" The storage is the need - the cloud may be a reasonable solution to your need, but the cloud isn't the need - it's the solution to a need you already know about. It's also likely that some other solution will be better than any new buzzwords, but the point is you'll have no doubt as to what you need - tons of storage - so you won't be blindly signing up for some cloud service without knowing why. Similarly, if you run superbowl.com you get almost zero traffic all year, then suddenly you get huge traffic for just a few days out of the year. You NEED to have a shitload of capacity only for a week, and you know it. There are lots of solutions, some of them involving stuff that is now sold as "cloud". But again you'll know what your need, or problem, is, and your trusted sysadmin will advise you on the best solution - which may or may not have anything to do with clouds. So you can stop wasting your time thinking about clouds and go take care of your business. If your current server setup is working for you, you don't need to change it. If it's not working for you, contact your sysadmin and ask about how to solve your problem - not how to waste money on a cloud or any other "solution" to a problem that you don't have. __________________ For historical display only. This information is not current: support@bettercgi.com ICQ 7208627 Strongbox - The next generation in site security Throttlebox - The next generation in bandwidth control Clonebox - Backup and disaster recovery on steroids Last edited by raymor; 08-21-2009 at 12:28 PM..