The whole idea of cloud computing is that it's supposed to provide the ability to spin up virtual resources quickly and easily. A new tool from startup Ravello Systems shows that can be done ... sometimes.
During Hurricane Sandy this fall, The Weather Channel experienced its highest traffic ever. Normally the media company -- which spans television, desktop and mobile platforms -- supports about 90 million Web and mobile users a month. During Sandy, that jumped to 450 million -- nearly double the company's previous high for Web traffic.