I think the point is sometimes that AWS small premium is really large. It varies a lot. For some the AWS costs are free or tiny. For others, AWS costs are la

I think the point is sometimes that AWS small premium is really large. It varies a lot. For some the AWS costs are free or tiny. For others, AWS costs are larger than salaries, and it creeps up over time. About staff, maybe consider finding a good consulting/support firm that can look after your servers for <10% the price of hiring one person, are friendly and on-call, and will likely stick around even as their people change. That solves the worry about replacing people, as well as the cost. But as with people, it can take some luck to find a good one :-) (I used to provide that kind of consulting/support service. Not as much now because there isn't much demand, and development & research work is more satisfying. But still a little, ticking along in the background.)