In the rush to give data scientists a much-needed step up from the limitations of a standard PC, it’s tempting to jump straight from traditional laptops and desktops to cloud solutions. While a cloud solution can offer tremendous capacity and computing power when needed, it’s not always the fastest, easiest, most secure or most cost-effective option for developing data science models.
That’s why it’s best not to use the cloud as a standalone solution but instead in combination with local workstations specifically designed for data scientists.
If it were a question of using the cloud vs. using a typical office laptop or even desktop, cloud solutions would be the answer, but that’s not the case. A standard office computer is not the right local hardware. What’s needed is a workstation built for the unique needs of data scientists. While a data science workstation might look like a typical laptop or desktop at a glance, what sits under the hood is quite different and changes everything.