Does your IT or devops team run a lot of do-it-yourself projects? DIY is
tempting, isn't it? You have smart engineers, easy access to storage and
computing power, and a mandate this year to start moving some of (or more of)
your applications to the cloud. Why not do it yourself?
I'm not saying that you shouldn't try DIY cloud computing management, but if
you're going that route, you should know what you're in for. In particular,
you should keep a sharp lookout for the point of no (easy) return.
The Five Cs of DIY
First of all, what compels people to try to roll their own end-to-end cloud
management strategy? There are five arguments we often hear for DIY (all of
which begin with "C"), depicted in Figure 1.
Control: When you do it yourself, you're able to control everything, right,
wrong or indifferent. If there are problems, you can handle them internally.
If your b... (more)