Dan Kusnetzky from ZDNet recently posted an article on his blog listing various vendors that provide test lab and IT prototyping functionality. It’s an interesting debate and we’re obviously big advocates of using a cloud-based service for a number of reasons:
– No on-site management of hardware
– Dramtically reduced administrative overhead
– It’s more cost effective due to economies of scale and utility billing (pay only for what you use)
– The risk of trying a cloud-based service is much lower than committing to a specific vendor and investing in large quantities of hardware and lab equipment
Of course, it’s early in the adoption curve. Salesforce.com experienced some initial questioning of it’s Software-as-a-Service model when it first launched, but as customers became comfortable with the SaaS approach, it quickly became the preferred option to on-site solutions. We expect a very similar adoption curve with cloud computing services!
