I agree that the available operating systems are outdated. It appears that it is difficult for Amazon to add new operating systems. Perhaps this inflexibility is a downside of the cloud. But it is possible to install your own OS. I will write about this soon.

As to the bundling, I think this is not different to conventional servers. You always have to backup your systems. Bundling an instance is just one option. As long as you don’t terminate the instance your configuration won’t disappear. You can also reboot servers etc. It is just like in any other virtual environment.

Imagine a customer desperately needs new server hardware. How long does it take until the ordered server arrives, is installed etc. In the cloud the new server is available after a few minutes and it costs you only a few clicks. I think this solves at least one problem.

And all i can say it that it just doesn’t feel “right” to me. And a lot of work just to get something rather simple up and running.

I’m very afraid of the volatility an instance has – plus all the stuff that’s available directly from Amazon seems to be horribly outdated.

And maybe i’ve got some things wrong on this, but it seems that everytime i change any configuration or update any component, i’d need to bundle a new AMI – just to make sure i’ll still have my VM in case an instance crashes.

Don’t get me wrong, i can see that there’s use for this technology, it’s just that it doesn’t fit any of my problems.