5 ms·

Containership.io Shuts Down

60 points by gouggoug 7y ago

azastrael 7y ago
Blog post: https://blog.containership.io/shutdown/ https://blog.containership.io/shutdown/
- shoo 7y ago
  > We had to ask ourselves the same questions our customers were asking: “What makes us different [from Kubernetes] ?” > We quickly realized our greatest value was not necessarily at the orchestration layer, but rather it was the intuitive multicloud control plane we were building (Containership Cloud). Though difficult, we made the choice to abandon our work on open source containership, and pivot to delivering customers the same sort of experience using Kubernetes. [...] > It has been nearly a year and a half since the Containership Cloud replatform, and we have failed to monetize Containership Cloud in such a way that we could build a sustainable business.
streetcat1 7y ago
I am still not sure why you failed? What was provided beside a GUI on top of the clouds api?
- diego 7y ago
  Failing is really the default for startups. A better question would be, why do you think you did not succeed. I'm guessing they simply did not make enough money, which is the norm. EDIT: if you read the article, they "failed to monetize" so there's your answer. Because they failed to monetize, it's hard to know what they could have done differently to monetize.
  - streetcat1 7y ago
    Right. So I would like to understand why customers did not pay?
    - deleted 7y ago
      [deleted]
    - cwyers 7y ago
      Plenty of people don't pay me money _all of the time._ Most of them aren't even making a decision to do this, it just never would occur to them to pay me money.
    - brianwawok 7y ago
      The cost was likely not enough to justify the product. Same basic reason anyone wouldn’t pay for something.
  - _bpo 7y ago
    > A better question would be, why do you think you did not succeed. Is that a different question than "why you failed?" from the GP?
    - TylerE 7y ago
      Yes. "Why you failed?" implies they did something _dumb_, as opposed to simply not doing something genius.
      - aae42 7y ago
        fail "literally" means to be unsuccessful it implies doing something dumb as much as 'not succeeding' ... which is to say, not at all
  - Aeolun 7y ago
    I wonder if they could have instead of shutting down, just raised prices to the point where they were profitable instead? It seems to me some customers would prefer that to a shutdown.
    - icebraining 7y ago
      Seems like a death spiral to me: they increase enough to be profitable with the current userbase, then half their clients move out due to the increased prices, they have to increase again, etc.
par 7y ago
so was the fatal blow in being effectively replaced by kubernetes? or not getting to the admin console as a product fast enough?
- phildougherty 7y ago
  A complex combination of factors that touch on timing, investment, strategy, people, mistakes, and way too many other factors to fit in a HN comment.
alexbanks 7y ago
I can assume why, but it seems very intense to say that all cloud operations will stop a month from now. Since they weren't making money, I would assume they don't have a ton of users, but still. Just over a month to migrate off? That seems pretty wild.
- gregmac 7y ago
  This is also one of the reasons these types of businesses are hard: I don't want to build on a platform that might suddenly set me into fire drill mode where I have to basically stop all work and port to a different technology. Going with a startup is always risky.
- darren0 7y ago
  You can keep your cluster after they are gone if you were already using eks, gke, or aks. Then just import that cluster into another multi cluster manager. (Disclaimer: I work for Rancher)
Animats 7y ago
At least you get six weeks to move to a different "cloud". The mean life of cloud services seems be under five years.
meddlepal 7y ago
It is incredibly risky to build businesses on top of small time platforms like this.
- ignoramous 7y ago
  I want to concur with you but... Would you pls elaborate what is meant by small-time platforms?
  - cattlefarmer 7y ago
    Likely something not backed by a corporation with big bags of money.
    - olafmol 7y ago
      Like Google ;P
gravypod 7y ago
Is open sourcing the code base possible? Might be interesting to see how it was built and give people a chance to self-host this tooling.
kasia66 7y ago
You can deploy your apps to any existing Kubernetes Cluster or build and manage a new cluster on any cloud with https://www.cloud66.com/(Disclaimer https://www.cloud66.com/(Disclaimer: I work at Cloud 66)

60 points by gouggoug 7y ago

azastrael 7y ago

Blog post: https://blog.containership.io/shutdown/ https://blog.containership.io/shutdown/

shoo 7y ago
> We had to ask ourselves the same questions our customers were asking: “What makes us different [from Kubernetes] ?” > We quickly realized our greatest value was not necessarily at the orchestration layer, but rather it was the intuitive multicloud control plane we were building (Containership Cloud). Though difficult, we made the choice to abandon our work on open source containership, and pivot to delivering customers the same sort of experience using Kubernetes. [...] > It has been nearly a year and a half since the Containership Cloud replatform, and we have failed to monetize Containership Cloud in such a way that we could build a sustainable business.

streetcat1 7y ago

I am still not sure why you failed? What was provided beside a GUI on top of the clouds api?

diego 7y ago
Failing is really the default for startups. A better question would be, why do you think you did not succeed. I'm guessing they simply did not make enough money, which is the norm. EDIT: if you read the article, they "failed to monetize" so there's your answer. Because they failed to monetize, it's hard to know what they could have done differently to monetize.
- streetcat1 7y ago
  Right. So I would like to understand why customers did not pay?
  - deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]
  - cwyers 7y ago
    Plenty of people don't pay me money _all of the time._ Most of them aren't even making a decision to do this, it just never would occur to them to pay me money.
  - brianwawok 7y ago
    The cost was likely not enough to justify the product. Same basic reason anyone wouldn’t pay for something.
- _bpo 7y ago
  > A better question would be, why do you think you did not succeed. Is that a different question than "why you failed?" from the GP?
  - TylerE 7y ago
    Yes. "Why you failed?" implies they did something _dumb_, as opposed to simply not doing something genius.
    - aae42 7y ago
      fail "literally" means to be unsuccessful it implies doing something dumb as much as 'not succeeding' ... which is to say, not at all
- Aeolun 7y ago
  I wonder if they could have instead of shutting down, just raised prices to the point where they were profitable instead? It seems to me some customers would prefer that to a shutdown.
  - icebraining 7y ago
    Seems like a death spiral to me: they increase enough to be profitable with the current userbase, then half their clients move out due to the increased prices, they have to increase again, etc.

par 7y ago

so was the fatal blow in being effectively replaced by kubernetes? or not getting to the admin console as a product fast enough?

phildougherty 7y ago
A complex combination of factors that touch on timing, investment, strategy, people, mistakes, and way too many other factors to fit in a HN comment.

alexbanks 7y ago

I can assume why, but it seems very intense to say that all cloud operations will stop a month from now. Since they weren't making money, I would assume they don't have a ton of users, but still. Just over a month to migrate off? That seems pretty wild.

gregmac 7y ago
This is also one of the reasons these types of businesses are hard: I don't want to build on a platform that might suddenly set me into fire drill mode where I have to basically stop all work and port to a different technology. Going with a startup is always risky.
darren0 7y ago
You can keep your cluster after they are gone if you were already using eks, gke, or aks. Then just import that cluster into another multi cluster manager. (Disclaimer: I work for Rancher)

Animats 7y ago

At least you get six weeks to move to a different "cloud". The mean life of cloud services seems be under five years.

meddlepal 7y ago

It is incredibly risky to build businesses on top of small time platforms like this.

ignoramous 7y ago
I want to concur with you but... Would you pls elaborate what is meant by small-time platforms?
- cattlefarmer 7y ago
  Likely something not backed by a corporation with big bags of money.
  - olafmol 7y ago
    Like Google ;P

gravypod 7y ago

Is open sourcing the code base possible? Might be interesting to see how it was built and give people a chance to self-host this tooling.

kasia66 7y ago

You can deploy your apps to any existing Kubernetes Cluster or build and manage a new cluster on any cloud with https://www.cloud66.com/(Disclaimer https://www.cloud66.com/(Disclaimer: I work at Cloud 66)