Europeans visiting San Francisco in the summer are often prepared for cloudy weather but are instead greeted by a dense fog that often blurs their expected postcard view of the Golden Gate Bridge. Similarly, a fog often appears when businesses embrace cloud-based service providers and expect an immediate one-stop solution for avoiding the red tape of procurement, racking servers, and acquiring IP addresses and namespaces. While moving your infrastructure to the cloud can solve many of these problems, and help minimize staffing, there is much to be considered before making such a transition.
Back in 1999 when Eric Mathewson approached me to join WideOrbit, cloud-based SaaS such as Salesforce had just started to roll out. At the time, Professor Ramnath Chellapa of Emory University's 1997 vision of Cloud Computing as the new computing paradigm, where the boundaries of computing will be determined by economic rationale, rather than technical limits alone, was not yet possible. This was mainly due to the high cost of hardware, bandwidth, and other limiting factors. What Salesforce and WideOrbit delivered in 1999 was closer to the massive hardware found in co-location facilities where we had servers in data centers, and we had virtualization, but still owned a large amount of pricey hardware.
2005 gave us Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud, and Amazon Machine Images. Microsoft Azure launched in 2009. Next came Google's Cloud Platform , App Engine in 2011 and then finally Google's Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS). But for most platforms, short of building new architecture to leverage things like dynamic load-balancing, containerization, microservices, and elasticity with Kubernetes, this was no better than what we had 10 years earlier with co-located facilities and virtualization. Leveraging the newest technology gave our engineering team a lot to work on, and we had come a long way since 2005, but we weren't close to optimized. Today, we are actively enhancing the platform to leverage these new technologies. In addition, as we help our clients support the digital convergence, we are finding more advantages to a central platform for the monetization of media. In the years of experience of streaming audio and video for both live and on-demand content, we have definitely seen the advantages of cloud events that can scale from thousands of viewers to millions with little notice.
So, what exactly do these public cloud vendors such as AWS, Azure, and GCP offer? For starters, they are located in Tier IV data centers with full redundancy of subsystems, compartmentalized security zones with biometric access controls, independently dual-powered cooling equipment, and fault-tolerant electrical power distribution. On top of that you may get additional protection in the form of geographically dispersed data centers.
While the cloud provides a lot of convenience and the ability to quickly scale, it can also result in data loss, data breaches, or worse. Many customers assume that simply by using a cloud service, backups and disaster recovery will be taken care of without any need for input. IT managers typically weigh the cost of hardware, centralized infrastructure, and its convenience with the cost of offerings from public cloud providers. But that is where things get difficult. As we all know, convenience and collaboration often lead to unintended security issues.
Bottom line, what most public cloud providers offer is part of an overall solution. You may get an operating system, but you're still responsible for patches. You may get the three nines of 99.9% availability, but that does not translate into availability of hosted services. You may get a database instance with redundancy, but you will need your own backups and encryption. You may get a firewall, a VPC and other security measures, but you will still need to monitor tripwires and protect against phishing and ransomware attacks. Automatic encryption between data centers will be provided, but a disaster recovery plan is still necessary.
In the end, the public cloud may be a small commodity portion of the offering, but your SaaS vendor needs to leverage it properly and work closely with your IT staff. At WideOrbit, we are constantly working with these same cloud providers to optimize our offering (this often means leveraging two vendors, which came in handy a few times when AWS had a global outage). Part of the offering is indeed a managed service , which takes care of optimization of middle and database tiers, clustering, application performance, and security. Cloud solutions still have to be configured by IT to include regular snapshots, backups, and disaster recovery for all tiers of service. This is potentially problematic for employers, especially if regulatory compliance is part of the picture. Unauthorized changes could make the company non-compliant and put the company at risk for fines and other penalties. The natural response of many employers is to tighten the reins, reassert control over employees, and become even more strict with IT policy.
So, whether you embrace all the good and bad of a cloud-computing infrastructure, or opt for a blend of both (WideOrbit often combines integrations between secure low-latency on-premise systems with local hyper-converged infrastructure, AWS, and Google Compute Cloud), remember the goal is always about lowering risk and improving the customer experience, while reducing IT overhead.
Eric Moe is our Chief Technology Officer. He has been by Eric Mathewson's side since 2001 and owns all hardware integration and advanced systems development. Prior to joining WideOrbit, Moe co-founded OpenTable.com and consulted for brands such as Silicon Graphics, Safeway and Kraft. Visit https://www.wideorbit.com/hostingservices/ to learn more about our managed hosting s
Most recent headlines
03/01/2026
A still from OBEX by Albert Birney, an official selection of the 2025 Sundance...
02/01/2026
Freezing Florida: NHL's EVP, Entertainment Bob Chesterman on Taking the Wint...
02/01/2026
NHL Winter Classic 2026: TNT Sports Prepares for First NHL Outdoor Game in Sunsh...
02/01/2026
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
02/01/2026
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
02/01/2026
Any Given Day: Cork University Hospital premieres Wednesday 7 January on RT One and RT Player at 9:35pm
RT will debut a powerful new six-part documentary se...
02/01/2026
Friday 2 January 2026
All episodes of Heated Rivalry will be landing on Sky and...
02/01/2026
Sequins, chat shows, live sporting action, ground-breaking docuseries and brand-new Irish drama to kick off 2026
New Year, New Content Coming Soon across RT
...
01/01/2026
Latin Grammy Cultural Foundation Announces 2026 Noel Schajris Scholarship The scholarship will cover tuition and housing for one Berklee College of Music stud...
01/01/2026
New year, new games, all with RTX 5080-powered cloud energy. GeForce NOW is kicking off 2026 by looking back at an unforgettable year of wins and wildly high fr...
31/12/2025
Back to All News
NFL Christmas Gameday on Netflix Scores Again With the Lions-V...
30/12/2025
As the College Football Playoff Enters the Quarterfinals, ESPN Blows Out Its Meg...
30/12/2025
SVG's Best of 2025: Original ArticlesTake a look back at all our coverage of big-time productions, game-changing technologies, and state-of-the-art new faci...
30/12/2025
MELBOURNE, Fla., Dec. 30, 2025 - L3Harris Technologies (NYSE: LHX) will release its fourth quarter 2025 financial results before the market opens on Thursday, J...
30/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
30/12/2025
Your live countdown to 2026 with Inhaler, David Gray, Lyra, Garron Noone, Sharon...
30/12/2025
It marked the first civilian operational authorization for a HAPS flight in Europe, led by Space42's subsidiary, Mira Aerospace
The flight demonstrated HAP...
29/12/2025
San Francisco 49ers Strike Gold With Halftime Laser SpectacularStunning display caps $200 million renovation of Levi's Stadium techBy Dan Daley, Audio Edito...
29/12/2025
The Cup's Around the Corner: An Inside Look at Broadcast Preparations for th...
29/12/2025
SVG's Best of 2025: Longform VideoWatch the standout keynote conversations, deep dives, and panel discussions from the year for free on SVG PLAY!By Brandon ...
29/12/2025
From crisper Lossless audio and immersive music videos in beta to new Audiobooks+ plans, custom transitions between tracks, and in-app Messages, we keep levelin...
29/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
27/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
26/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
26/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
25/12/2025
Holiday lights are twinkling, hot cocoa's on the stove and gamers are settling in for a well-earned break.
Whether staying in or heading on a winter getawa...
24/12/2025
What is AI good for? Posted by MTI Film on December 24, 2025
What is AI good for?
What is AI good for?
It's been three years since ChatGPT first cap...
24/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
24/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
24/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
24/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
24/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
24/12/2025
RT has unveiled an exclusive first look at the new Dancing with the Stars promo...
24/12/2025
Back to All News
The Boyfriend' Season 2 Unveils Heartwarming Trailer, Key...
24/12/2025
Back to All News
Love, Fights, and Everything in Between: Badly in Love' Returns for Season 2
Entertainment
24 December 2025
GlobalJapan
Link copied t...
24/12/2025
Scripps Research study links sleep variability with sleep apnea and hypertension How consumers' digital activity trackers could enable personalized health s...
23/12/2025
How guilas Cibae as Dominican Winter League Games Are Locally Produced for Glob...
23/12/2025
BitFire's Jim Akimchuk on Supplying Scalability and Customization in the Clo...
23/12/2025
CAMB.AI Enables European Athletics to Offer Multi-Language SupportPlan is to eventually offer translation into all languages spoken in EuropeBy Ken Kerschbaumer...
23/12/2025
Analysis: As sports media values trend negative, scarcity and quality are king By Callum McCarthy, Editor-at-Large
Monday, December 22, 2025 - 14:08
Print ...
23/12/2025
ESPN, Disney, and NBA Return to the Animated Altcast Fray With Second Edition of...
23/12/2025
End the Year on a High Note and Donate to the Sports Broadcasting Fund Today!By Ken Kerschbaumer, Editorial Director
Tuesday, December 23, 2025 - 12:25 pm
P...
23/12/2025
The year is winding down, the weather outside is frightful, and it's the perfect time to escape into a story that warms the heart. For listeners looking for...
23/12/2025
A Zeus motor is hot fire tested at L3Harris' Camden, Arkansas, solid rocket ...
23/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
23/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
23/12/2025
Lightware will exhibit several major product innovations at ISE 2026, including the new USB-C BOOSTER-V1, Google Meet. integration for various Taurus UCX models...
23/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
23/12/2025
Share Share by:
Copy link
Facebook
X
Whatsapp
Pinterest
Flipboard...
Europeans visiting San Francisco in the summer are often prepared for cloudy weather but are instead greeted by a dense fog that often blurs their expected postcard view of the Golden Gate Bridge. Similarly, a fog often appears when businesses embrace cloud-based service providers and expect an immediate one-stop solution for avoiding the red tape of procurement, racking servers, and acquiring IP addresses and namespaces. While moving your infrastructure to the cloud can solve many of these problems, and help minimize staffing, there is much to be considered before making such a transition. 
