SpotCloud: Worth Watching (and Perhaps Using)

While multiple options exist for buying cloud-based server capacity, picking and choosing from among these can be challenging, especially to those new to cloud computing. A new cloud capacity marketplace, SpotCloud, aims to deliver greater simplicity and flexibility, while establishing new options for buyers and sellers.

SpotCloud is a "cloud capacity clearinghouse," a "spot market" for cloud computing capacity. Want to deploy an on-demand server instance to test or tinker with something? SpotCloud will sell you pre-configured Linux or Windows "virtual machine (VM) packages" with defined profiles and capacities, by the hour, and let you pay as you go. Got extra server capacity? SpotCloud will help you sell access to it. A kind-of brokerage for infrastructure as a service (IaaS) on demand.

SpotCloud is powered by the Enomaly Elastic Computing Platform (ECP), a field-proven turn-key platform for delivery (and monetization) of cloud-based computing services. SpotCloud is built on the Google App Engine for low-cost global scalability. Support for other cloud platforms is coming soon, according to the company.

The details are always the challenge, of course, but frankly, this is an idea for which the time has in fact arrived. For the right workloads and projects, SpotCloud can reduce significantly or eliminate entirely the barriers to entry into cloud computing. If you or your company have been on the fence, take a look at SpotCloud. It may provide the push you need to replace apprehension and uncertainty with some real-life experience.