I don't really think that these ideas mutually exclusive. The example given here ( https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29660117 https://news.ycombinator.com/it

I don't really think that these ideas mutually exclusive. The example given here ( https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29660117 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29660117 ) discusses 4000 nodes running extremely inefficiently. Depending on how inefficient it could be, you could replace it with multiple beefier servers placed redundantly in different zones. (And if it's _really_ inefficient you might be able to replace it with an order of magnitude fewer servers that aren't beefier at all.) I think really the point being made is to efficiently use your resources. Of course some of the most expensive resources you have are programmers so inefficient hardware solutions may end up cheaper overall, but I've personally seen solutions that are architecturally so complex that replacing them with something simpler would be a big win across the board.