Jetbrains IDEs (and I assume others) index the code to make search operations faster. That's one example of a heavy operation where you'd rather have the meat of the IDE close to the code, than close to the user. Simplifies setting up your debugger if the IDE and the debugger are both on localhost. I've worked for one org that insisted the code stay entirely inside AWS GovCloud at all times.
Like you I'm not actually convinced it's a useful feature generally (otherwise we'd still all be using X11), but those are some justifications.
> I've worked for one org that insisted the code stay entirely inside AWS GovCloud at all times.
Ah, this was the bit that I was missing. Thanks! That's.....certainly a constraint within which this feature could be useful. Seems extraordinarily niche, though!?
It was (niche). And to add insult to injury, there was a jump box.
Like I said, I don't like the approach, it's way too "thin client" for me, but it seems to be part and parcel of our "towers of abstraction" approach to software development. I guess the next logical step is to abstract away the physical location of the code.
Like you I'm not actually convinced it's a useful feature generally (otherwise we'd still all be using X11), but those are some justifications.