A rough comparison:
- “No cloud”: I roast and grind my own coffee beans for use in my own coffee maker.
- “Renting servers”: I have a bean-to-cup coffee machine, and I can buy beans anywhere.
- “Renting capacity”: I use regular (DE, store-brand) pre-ground coffee in my simple, affordable coffee maker (many brands available).
- “Limited in the cloud”: I use any brand of instant coffee (Nescafé, store-brand) and don’t need a coffee maker at all.
- “Fully in the arms of the cloud”: I have a Nespresso machine that only works with Nespresso pods.
- “Coffee as a service”: I go to Starbucks, where I can order a variety of coffees. I don’t own a coffee maker, I don’t need to understand how it works, and I don’t need to keep any coffee supplies at home.
The last option is expensive but effortless.
Bert Hubert: The (European) cloud ladder: from virtual server to MS 365