Is cloud hosting for me?

We host some of our clients on vps servers and dedicated servers rather than shared servers simply because:

1) We do a lot of python development which is not very common on shared servers
2) We like to tune the server in order to get better redundancy and speed (memcached, nginx, etc.)
3) We have had very horrible experiences with shared hosting providers

* Don't get me wrong, there are good shared hosting providers out there but their price is comparable to a small vps so we go for the second.

The benefit of cloud hosting is that your site can "scale" on it's features dinamically.

For example, if your blog gets digged it will significally consume more bandwidth, ram, etc. than if your site is only visited by you and your grandma, so with cloud hosting you don't need to worry about it. It will automatically scale and handle the loud. With a vps or dedicated server you will need to contact your provider and pay for that extra juice needed to handle the load.

This normally takes 2-3 hours to be setup and normally requires you to pay for the entire month of it's use even if your site needed it for a week or an hour.

With cloud hosting you pay for what you use and only for the time you need it and everything is setup by you through your provider's control panel so no more 2-3 hours wait.

Sounds very cool, but will i move?

Short answer: Not right now.

Complete answer: I have yet convinced myself that cloud hosting is secure enough for my data. With the test accounts i have played, my final bill has always been higher than what i expected, always with hidden costs. Also I don't know of any cloud hosting company with a clear uptime warranty and have read stories about them going down.

Also I personally prefer to know my server limitations and control/manage it as i please. I also prefer flat fees rather than variable.

But thats just me, right? What do you think? Will you do the switch?

--fernando