Why new and emerging cloud computing startups rely on other clouds -- and why that's good for IT The number of emerging cloud computing startups is staggering. There are a few reasons for this beyond the hyped nature of cloud computing, including the fact that starting a cloud computing service these days is a relative bargain. Why? The cloud, of course.Driving this movement is the fact that many emerging cloud computing companies have virtually eaten their own dog food, leveraging existing public cloud platforms as their own development, deployment, and hosting technology. Indeed, many emerging cloud computing companies actually exist on Amazon.com, GoGrid, 3Tera, or other infrastructure service providers — and their users have no clue.The reasons for this are obvious, including cost and speed to deployment. The cost of leveraging other clouds for your infrastructure significantly reduces the cost of entering the cloud computing market. Or, more important, it shortens the time required to get up and running, which is critical in grabbing market share or, at least, mind share. Should you care whether your cloud provider sits in a datacenter it rents or owns, or on somebody else’s cloud? I think so. Chances are you’ll see better service from those that place their cloud in somebody else’s cloud. Why? Because they are typically outsourcing system maintenance to a larger cloud computing provider that’s better at it than they are. Also, they can scale their clouds quickly when needed. The innovation around the offering should increase, considering that they are focused on the core features and functions and not on maintenance and hosting issues. Finally, the cost savings from not maintaining their own infrastructure is going to be passed on to you, hopefully.Still, there are issues when relying on a cloud provider who uses someone else’s cloud. For example, many cloud-using organizations require physical audits, and a cloud provider using someone else’s cloud may complicate that audit. Moreover, both you and your cloud provider are placing a huge bet that the primary provider will meet performance and uptime expectations.All things considered, however, I believe we’re going to see a huge growth in clouds using clouds, and this should only accelerate the quality of service and the number of providers. Cloud ComputingIaaS