[xorcist]

There is a large gap between "own the hardware" and "use cloud hosting". Many people rent the hardware, for example, and you can use managed databases which is one step up than "starting a vm".

But your comparison isn't fair. The difference between running your own hardware and using the cloud (which is perhaps not even the relevant comparison but let's run with it) is the difference between:

1. Open up the cloud console, and

2. You already have the hardware so you just run "virsh" or, more likely, do nothing at all because you own the API so you have already included this in your Ansible or Salt or whatever you use for setting up a server.

Because ordering a new physical box isn't really comparable to starting a new VM, is it?

[sanderjd]

I've always liked the theory of #2, I just haven't worked anywhere yet that has executed it well.