I just read a blog post by Mike Gualtieri, a senior analyst at Forrester Research who specializes in application development, IT management and delivery issues. In his post, Mike was reflecting on the popularity of running cloud applications, and how “The Cloud” has now become a buzzword for savings and flexibility, when in fact this may not always be true.

He maintains that cloud computing is ideal only when “elasticity” is built into the mix -- when the cloud system is automatically brought into play during peak periods, and it’s “asleep” the remainder of the time. Mike used the analogy of the homeowner’s ability to only pay for electricity when the lights are turned on.

Reading this, I reflected gratefully on how Tensoft has implemented the cloud in just this way – building automatic flexibility into each installation. Unlike other solutions providers, our customers enjoy this benefit now, because they’re able to add or remove users on a monthly basis, paying only for the ones that they currently need.  We also scale the application infrastructure support without the user needing to ask or to even think about asking for it.  The result? No wasted user licenses or extraneous costs. Tensoft solutions are helping our customers to “shut off the lights” when they’re not in use.

Take a look at Mike Gualtieri’s blog and tell me what you think. I think this is an issue that bears more discussion.