Chuck Hobart, senior engagement manager with VMC consulting (www.vmc.com), says:
The optimal ROI for Cloud bursting is a highly cyclical business model, which cannot afford to build the data structures required for peak load, and as a result, lose potential business. Cloud bursting allows highly cyclic businesses to apply “Kanban” methodology to trigger additional capacity to meet “just in time” demand. Scaling both up and down maximizes the utilization of resources to perfectly align with the business need.
There are a number of industries where Cloud bursting would be of exceptional value. An example is online floral companies. There are days during the year when demand is one thousand times normal (Valentine’s Day, Mothers day, etc.). Another example is online education, where demand is very strong in the evening but very low during the course of the day. Proper sampling can provide enough data to design scripting to automate response to the predicted need. Cloud bursting requires a microscope—not a sledgehammer—to extract the true value.
