[pfg]

I think you're confusing elasticity with scalability. Just because you can't spin up instances within seconds doesn't mean you can't run at scale on traditional hosting providers.

Still, I do believe that's the direction the industry will move towards. OVH, for example, is already pushing pretty hard in that market, and their business model was pretty similar to the providers you mentioned not so long ago. It's probably just a matter of time.