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>> How is this any different to me just going out and buying a big computer?
>
> Or going out and buying a couple hundred big computers? To do a
> week-long render? Then what?
The average person can't afford to buy a hundred big computers. But
then, the average person can't afford to rent a hundred big computers in
a cloud either. So it seems like a moot comparison to me.
>> (And as we all know, buying is usually cheaper than renting except for
>> one-offs.)
>
> It depends on how much you get with your rental. Maintenance? Backups?
> Rack space? Electricity? Disaster planning? You still have to pay to
> run the things, and you still have to have stand-by capacity for overloads.
If things like maintenance, backups and disaster planning are important
to you, then yes, cloud computing probably makes a lot of sense. But if
you're just some dude trying to render stuff with POV-Ray, it makes far
less sense.
> Of course, with something like Amazon, you can rent until your capacity
> warrants buying processors. And then you can use Amazon to handle the
> overflow, or the seasonal rush, or the new product announcement, or
> whatever.
Only makes sense if you're using the system to provide a service to
somebody else. If you're just running a computation for your own benefit
then there aren't going to be "rushes" or "overflows".
--
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*
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