With Apologies to Jeff Foxworthy (“You just might be a redneck“)

You just might be a Cloud App, if:

You only need processing or storage periodically, for instance during certain times of the month, week or day. An example would be end-of-day processing, Christmas rush, etc.  The rest of the time any over-capacity in terms of server and other resources is wasted. Under capacity is unthinkable and probably a CLM (Career-Limiting Move ).

You have no clue as to how successful you new idea will be (or not)!  Why buy lots of servers for what may never happen.  On the other hand your new idea may go viral, and in that case …. Oh yes, and even if you do go viral, what if it doesn’t last?   (Remember, scaling down can be as important as scaling up.) With physical hardware it is hard to sell off old equipment.

You  need to get your new great idea up and running quickly and don’t have time to wait for new hardware to be purchased, arrive and be set up. (God grant me patience, and I want it RIGHT NOW! )

You are not mission critical (core to the companies business) and can moved out to the Cloud.

Regulations in your industry have caught up with the cloud and it is “safe” to put your data and/or processing in the Cloud. Regrettably some regulatory bodies and public Clouds have not.  Some data may have to remain safely behind your firewall. Even in that case some of your component parts may be appropriate to move to the Cloud while other stay safely behind your on premise firewall. In that case a Hybrid application architecture is a useful design to consider in order to leverage the advantages of the cloud while keeping some data (and processing) behind the firewall.

You want to leverage the attributes of the Cloud such as: Scalability, Availability,Elasticity, on-demand self-provisioning, and measured operating costs. (See the National Institute of Standards definition of Cloud Computing for more details.)

So, if you are a Cloud app be happy in the Cloud. 🙂  If not maybe you can be a Hybrid App living partly on premise and partly in the cloud, having the best advantages of both.

Bill