>> 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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