Cloud computing cheaper or more expensive than other solutions?
ErrantX: Having built a couple of scalable systems of my own (personal project one running on 5 machines currently and 2 works ones running on 50 machines  and 17,000+(client)/15(server) machines respectively - though note those last 2 are not websites) I can say safely that the easiest option is to go with a cloud provider. :)It's a pain to make sure you monitor loads and tweak the availability as things grow. Whereas with Amazon (who I would 100% recommend having recently played with them) it is pretty much all automagical :)One of the things I used to do when I was a more naive programmer was attempt to reinvent the wheel. Take LiveMeta. I got distracted for at least 2 weeks writing a javascript/php visitor tracking system (and it was damn good :D) . But the thing is - it's not what the site was about, it was an incidental feature (solely for the developers too!) and in the end Google/Clicky provided enough features.I traded one cut and paste of the Google Analytics code for 2 weeks I should have spent on the other parts of the project.Same applies here: dont give yourself work. If the project is going to need to scale fast ebough to require cloud computing/scalable architecture pay the bit extra to have Amazon do it for you. 3 years down the line you might decide it is time to invest in your own network - but right now I doubtthat shouldbe your focus. :)