We are going to outsource a solution from the data-center (for some reason), it is a web solution built on .NET and SQL server and it has scheduled night services. I searched for Cloud Hosting (IaaS) and I found some nice prices and offers and see that dedicated servers are very cheep and the hardware specifications are very good.
The advantage I see in cloud hosting is that it is easier to scale and they provide better availability since it is a virtual machine. But IMHO if I want to compare dedicated servers with cloud servers/hosting, in terms of hardware specs and pricing I see dedicated servers are cheaper.
I would give some pricing examples but I don't want to include specific companys' packages lest it be seen as advertising for them.
What are the cases that make cloud hosting more preferable then dedicated servers? What are the cases that make dedicated servers more preferable then cloud hosting?