TechRepublic – Pros and cons of procuring your own IT in the cloud

Continuing my foray into the cloud with Amazon Web Services, I am now in a position to place information on the web, for the world to see. I created a new Amazon EC2 machine, carried out some security patching and installed a web server. I don’t have to worry about high availability, e-commerce or encrypting my data.

Now the server is ready to take content that will be available on the Internet. I can do this myself and bypass the traditional workflow in my enterprise. Unfortunately, this proves to be a double-edged sword.

I decide, in a moment of drivelling thickwittedness, to put up a single page with a few helpful details about me and my department. It’s easy enough to create a static page describing the department I work in. I don’t have to worry about high availability, e-commerce or encrypting my data. Of course, this is a trivial example: being able to start a car does not make me a driver. The more complex the business solution, the greater the technical challenges I have to overcome.

More of the TechRepublic article from Nick Hardiman

Alex Carroll

Managing Member at Lifeline Data Centers

Alex, co-owner, is responsible for all real estate, construction and mission critical facilities: hardened buildings, power systems, cooling systems, fire suppression, and environmentals. Alex also manages relationships with the telecommunications providers and has an extensive background in IT infrastructure support, database administration and software design and development. Alex architected Lifeline’s proprietary GRCA system and is hands-on every day in the data center.