Avoiding the death zone: choosing and running a library project in the cloud

Abstract

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore the evolving field of cloud computing and its usefulness for library technology departments. It seeks to consider what types of projects are good candidates for the cloud and which are not.Design/methodology/approachThe authors spent a year trying out different projects using Amazon's Web Service. They discuss what went right and what went wrong. They brought up their own machine image and tested out web sites and applications in the cloud. They discuss the different types of cloud services, evaluating and choosing a provider and the types of projects which best fit into this architecture. Advantages and considerations are highlighted as well as an alternative to the public cloud.FindingsThere are some projects that are better suited to cloud computing than others. Flexibility and cost savings are the best reason for moving projects to the cloud. There are also good and valid reasons not to move some projects off into the cloud.Originality/valueThis is an on‐the‐ground look at running projects in the cloud that used to be done on back‐end servers. The bulk of the paper looks at infrastructure as a service. All of the work that has been done is in production and has been tested for over a year.