[talk] /. on "don't be a server hugger"

[Pete Wright]

On 05/16/14 09:09, Jesse Callaway wrote:
> 
> 
> 
> On Fri, May 16, 2014 at 11:48 AM, Brian Coca <briancoca+nycbug at gmail.com
> <mailto:briancoca+nycbug at gmail.com>> wrote:
> 
>     Those numbers seem to assume you buy all the software and network
>     appliances. My numbers were skewed in the other direction because i
>     was using OSS for everything (routers/firewalls,
>     virtualization,etc). IT labor costs in my case were higher but more
>     than compensated for by the software choice.
> 
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> 
> 
> There is a certain risk in ownership. If the infrastructure demands are
> known and can be projected for at least 1 year going forward, then
> ownership makes a great deal of sense in most cases.
> 
> Certainly the cost of administration is no less when going with the
> cloud. Admin costs are not for rack & stack, they are for configuration
> and upkeep, which must be done in either case.
> 
> I'm preaching to the choir, but I'd like to say that there are cases
> where ownership of hardware makes sense, and there are cases where it
> does not make sense... either from a depreciation perspective or from
> having to maintain multiple contracts with remote admins for global
> pops, etc. How much is it going to cost you to replace a stick of RAM in
> Singapore? I think I just contradicted my earlier statement, but it does
> go to show that it all depends on what you're doing. There is no
> clearcut better answer in all cases.
> 

yea i totaly agree with you here jesse.

another thing that is commonly overlooked is how you pay for "cloud"
services like AWS.  generally it will be an Operational Expense on your
books, as opposed to Capital Expense if you build and own your own
infrastructure.  for many non-sysadmin-centric startups this is pretty
appealing from a finance perspective.

taking that into account with the other upfront costs of owning your own
gear that jesse mentions can turn off non-technical decision makers
pretty quickly.

my 2 bits is that things like aws have some interesting use-cases but
have *major* downsides that need to be taken into account.  maybe it's
better to work with your local ISP and get a dedicated server?  maybe
you lease your gear?  aws isn't the only way to sidestep opex :)

-p


-- 
Pete Wright
pete at nomadlogic.org
twitter => @nomadlogicLA