> while their dedicated servers could have easily served almost any traffic thrown at them and be more responsive Sounds great, for some use cases. Particularl

> while their dedicated servers could have easily served almost any traffic thrown at them and be more responsive Sounds great, for some use cases. Particularly if you don't need multiple 9's of uptime, and just need a few 8's. Most companies don't have: * Guaranteed sla's for replacing components when the RAM needs to be reseated, a drive fails, or the fans get too dusty and things overheat * Redundancy set up in case the network connection fails * Redundancy set up in case the power fails. (Many places will have a UPS for under an hour, but generators, along with a regular maintenance schedule and processes for ensuring fuel is another thing) * On site security, to make sure nobody breaks in and does some corporate espionage * Ultra-high-speed links to the internet And if the little startup takes on a client with important certification requirements, it can be very helpful to have a cloud provider. A lot of contracts I've taken on over the years ask tough questions during the sales process about our practices regarding the above things and much more.