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“People want to be able to build it their way. They kind of want a Burger King: ‘I don’t like pickles — why do I have to have pickles?’” The big gain in outsou

by dfxm12 15y ago

“People want to be able to build it their way. They kind of want a Burger King: ‘I don’t like pickles — why do I have to have pickles?’” The big gain in outsourcing something like this/buying an "off the shelf" solution is that you don't get exactly what you want, but you get it cheaper because the people you buy it from are doing it at volume. When you need a solution as specialized as Facebook, it doesn't surprise me that the big players are unwilling to break their service offerings/support model (at a competitive price), because they are more concerned with keeping their own costs down. They don't want to have to hire people to support a special infrastructure for just one customer... Thus, Facebook gets what they need and at a better price by doing it themselves.

danssig 15y ago
>but you get it cheaper because the people you buy it from are doing it at volume. Since I've been buying computers I've never seen this to be the case. I have yet to see a single time that buying a prepackaged computer of any brand was cheaper than buying the parts on e.g. pricewatch and building it myself. Dislcaimer: I've always built machines with an eye towards gaming so maybe at the very low end this isn't the case. I'd be surprised even then.
- dfxm12 15y ago
  Parts and labor are built into that price. You are also paying them to build it and for support. Again, you might not need that support and you might not need to have them build it for you, or you might need something that isn't offered in a prepackaged configuration... just like Facebook in this case.
sliverstorm 15y ago
It's not just about volume discounts. In part, it's about not having to know exactly what you want. Your company doesn't have to worry about how many watts the PSU should be, or who to buy RAM from, or whether the case has enough cooling. You just pick between a few hard drive technologies, a few different CPU's, and how much RAM you need. It's also much easier to keep your server room homogeneous when you use off-the-shelf machines. As a custom builder, your parts will necessarily change over time as this or that part becomes unavailable, but goliaths like Dell can keep the exact same machine available for purchase for years.

by dfxm12 15y ago

danssig 15y ago

>but you get it cheaper because the people you buy it from are doing it at volume. Since I've been buying computers I've never seen this to be the case. I have yet to see a single time that buying a prepackaged computer of any brand was cheaper than buying the parts on e.g. pricewatch and building it myself. Dislcaimer: I've always built machines with an eye towards gaming so maybe at the very low end this isn't the case. I'd be surprised even then.

dfxm12 15y ago
Parts and labor are built into that price. You are also paying them to build it and for support. Again, you might not need that support and you might not need to have them build it for you, or you might need something that isn't offered in a prepackaged configuration... just like Facebook in this case.

sliverstorm 15y ago

It's not just about volume discounts. In part, it's about not having to know exactly what you want. Your company doesn't have to worry about how many watts the PSU should be, or who to buy RAM from, or whether the case has enough cooling. You just pick between a few hard drive technologies, a few different CPU's, and how much RAM you need. It's also much easier to keep your server room homogeneous when you use off-the-shelf machines. As a custom builder, your parts will necessarily change over time as this or that part becomes unavailable, but goliaths like Dell can keep the exact same machine available for purchase for years.