From the first days of cloud we have been promised many things. Unlimited resources! Top grade security! Five hundred 9s of availability! And all this cheaper than hosting your own. Unfortunately we have seen over and over that reality does not live up to expectations.

In this talk, I will walk through real world examples where teams ran up against the limits of what the cloud can provide, and we’ll look at the real consequences. Resources where and when you need them? We’ll discuss a Generative AI startup and their attempts at accessing cloud GPUs. The secure cloud? We’ll look at a large online retail estate company who suffered a massive ransomware attack. Cheaper? HA! We’ll explore companies who have exploded their entire IT budget in a matter of months.

Nearly every company who’s adopted the cloud has experienced one of these frustrations to some degree. The result has been an industry wide feeling of disillusionment with the cloud. So, what shall we do? Abandon it? Return to hosting our own servers like cave people? The answer, unsurprisingly, is a bit more nuanced. We’ll pick up the pieces of broken promises and put together a mosaic of lessons learned that we can take away and use to ensure we are well prepared for the future of cloud, whatever that looks like.