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Your last sentence reveals what you probably already know to be true: there isn't a middle ground. We tried for years to get hyperscaler-class software running
by bcantrill 4y ago
Your last sentence reveals what you probably already know to be true: there isn't a middle ground. We tried for years to get hyperscaler-class software running on commodity-class servers -- and came to the conclusion that the hyperscalers came to (and as Alan Kay famously observed): to be really serious about elastic infrastructure, one needs to do one's own hardware. Now, ~2.5 years into Oxide, I can substantiate that with more detail that I could have ever imagined: there is no middle ground -- and indeed, this is why the infrastructure world has become so acutely bifurcated!
- mwcampbell 4y agoDo you think there's at least a place for a holistic system that's not a whole rack? Or do you think that those of us with smaller computing needs will just have to either rent from a hyperscaler or put up with PC servers?
- bcantrill 4y agoDefinitely, but it's not a market that Oxide intends to go after (at least not for the foreseeable future). Part of the challenge is that it really does require diverging from the reference designs (as these have effectively enshrined a proprietary BMC and everything that comes with it) -- and once you are away from reference designs, you are talking about a very different economic proposition. This is part of why we are so transparent and open about everything we're doing: our hope is that we can enable others to pick up the baton and serve those markets that we do not intend to address.