> We're going to look back in 10-20 years and laugh that every company felt the need to build datacenters. Until recently, I don't think it was "felt the need

> We're going to look back in 10-20 years and laugh that every company felt the need to build datacenters. Until recently, I don't think it was "felt the need to" as much as "had no choice but to." AWS-style data-center is a new development in technology. The ability to remotely fire up servers and have them running in minutes is wonderful but it also means you have to redo your entire IT architecture. For companies just starting up, it's no big deal. For ones already established for 30 years, it is nothing short of a Herculean effort. Setting up a datacenter might be a better choice.