back to article Same time, same server, next Tuesday? AWS can do that now

Amazon Web Services has just done something rather interesting, in the form of making it possible to reserve servers in advance for short bursts of computing. The new “Scheduled Reserved Instances” caper does what it says on the tin: you can decide what kind of server you want to run, how long to run it for and what you're …

  1. jake Silver badge

    So, essentially ...

    ... the kiddies at Amazon are finally figuring out the 1960s Mainframe model.

    What people are calling "Cloud Computing" culminated in IBM's SNA in the '70s. IBM milked it out thru' the '90s, but even by the mid-80's it was considered archaic by most.

    I mean, seriously ... Purchase a PC with more power than all the IBM mainframes in the mid-80s combined, pay for an OS in the purchase price, purchase an Internet connection for connectivity, which in turn allows access to all the free software in the world ... and then pay someone else to store your data & host your applications?

    Who does this at home (corporate environment)? Are they stoned, stupid, or both?

    As for corporations trusting other corporations with data ... Get back to me when Amazon, Google, IBM, Yahoo!, Sun and HP are trading "cloud services", m'kay? Until that happens, this is all marketing twaddle, separating fools from their money.

    Give it up, already. The entire "cloud" meme is getting old.

    1. IHateWearingATie

      Re: So, essentially ...

      Just because you can't imagine a use for this, doesn't mean there isn't one. A client I'm working with runs fairly predictable periodic analyses that need a bunch more horsepower than they need at all other times. They *could* pay for a bunch of tin that sits around idle most of the time, or they could use this service (other options are also available). There's a bunch of factors to consider on whether it would make sense and be cheaper, but it's not hard to think of use cases for this.

      1. jake Silver badge

        @IHateWearingATie (was: Re: So, essentially ...)

        How much of that data is corporate proprietary ... or worse, customer data? Has the person in charge of this roll-out verified, without a shadow of a doubt, that the data being sent off-campus cannot be compromised? If you answer "yes", I'd love to see the methodology. If your answer is "no" ... well, enough said.

        1. IHateWearingATie

          Re: @IHateWearingATie (was: So, essentially ...)

          If you were after 'beyond a shadow of a doubt' you'd never do anything ever with any useful data. That's a pretty silly thing to ask for.

          Risk assessment, sensible precautions, and nuking from orbit anyone who suggests eggshell security is adequate (it's the only way to be sure) are your friends here.

  2. MyffyW Silver badge

    @jake I go along with that so far. There's certainly a bunch of hype in front of these fluffy clouds.

    What's new is the micro-payment options, which go just a little way to allowing regular folks to start small and build up.

    And on the SaaS side the ability to create, edit and print the same office document from any internet connected PC is pretty cool.

    1. jake Silver badge

      @MyffyW

      "What's new is the micro-payment options"

      Absolutely incorrect. Mainframe users had run-time charges.

      "And on the SaaS side the ability to create, edit and print the same office document from any internet connected PC is pretty cool."

      I've able to do that since before TCP/IP existed.

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