Ahh, I see now where the confusion was. I reread part #1 of the article and I was arguing something slightly different. My argument is that using something lik

Ahh, I see now where the confusion was. I reread part #1 of the article and I was arguing something slightly different. My argument is that using something like AWS RDS has lower startup cost than having a DBA manage a DB server manually not that it is cheaper than running on bare-metal. I guess what I am saying is running your DB manually on the cloud protects you from vendor lock in (Cloud Jail as he calls it) but at the expense of greater upfront costs. It is the worst of both words. I think startup shouldn't worry about managing their database, it's a distraction in the early/mid stages. If a cloud provider has a managed version the break even point where building it out yourself is cheaper is actually surprisingly far out and if you haven't validated your idea yet, I just don't think it the ROI justifies it. Replace database with other infrastructure pieces. With that said, after re-reading I do agree with the author on the point that you should consider your options and have a plan.