The Cloud Wars

Your app should be cloud - based. This is obvious. But which cloud? This probably is the most difficult  question today. There as several clouds to choose from. And they are not equal. I am far from judging which is the best one (if there is one that is the best). I have to warn you switching clouds is close to impossible.

A cloud system is not an array of machines hosted somewhere. It is the API. The cloud operating system. Platform wars are no longer between Windows and MacOS (their time is gone). Nor among Microsoft Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, Safari and Opera. (webkit has won). Nor among Android, iOS, BlackBerry and Windows Phone (to be successful, you can't support just one, no matter what). There are wars among the Cloud systems. Amazon AWS vs Microsoft Azure vs Google App Engine.

The Cloud Wars.

The investment required to build a good Cloud Application is not small. The better the app or the broader reach, the bigger the investment (obvious). And the bigger the investment in one particular Cloud platform, the deeper and stronger the vendor lock-in is.

At wiho.me, we've picked Amazon. Not because it is the best (tough call). But because it is good enough (actually very good) and extremely well structured into a galaxy of services. But others are good and well structured too. Amazon seemed neutral, as they do not have their own OS. So - my thinking was - they would not favor Linux over Microsoft (or vice versa) or Oracle versus SQL Server.

But now I see the original thinking behind by decision was flawed. Amazon Cloud IS an operating system itself. We are building to Amazon's API and using Amazon's services. And I see moving over to Azure would be as impossible as moving any Windows application to MacOS ten years ago. Too much effort, too small ROI.

So think twice before you dive into a Cloud. Once in, your chances of getting out are close to none.