[jbigelow]

"EC2 is a rentable compute utility, it doesn't provide for automatic failure or redundancy."

Nobody wants to admit that "cloud" became a great way to market (and mark up) traditional web hosting services that we've had since the early 90s.

It still boggles my mind that Microsoft's Azure, which overall I'm a fan of, makes me pick an instance size (and corresponding price) for my app; the original premise of the cloud was to take these kinds decisions out of the mix. What happens when my micro-instance pegs out? It won't automatically bump up to the next higher level or spin up a new instance for me. This isn't "cloud" this is marketing.

[tybris]

The difference is in the word "utility".

In the 90s, hosting was a fixed quantity for a fixed price.

In the 00/10s, hosting is whatever you need whenever you need it and pay for whatever you use.

It's like going from chopped wood to an electric grid, a radical transformation of technology and business models.

[mtogo]

A radical transformation, really? To me it seems more like a small step, just changing the payment model a little bit and making it a bit more convenient to provision more instances.