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This is why I'm finally slowly starting to self-host things. It's not really convenient compared to *aaS, as it's a whole lotta new stuff to learn with great co

This is why I'm finally slowly starting to self-host things. It's not really convenient compared to *aaS, as it's a whole lotta new stuff to learn with great consequences for an error (because of the security issues), but I would be absolutely screwed if I needed customer service for any of these "customer is the product" services I use (e.g. everything Google). That alone is worth the hassle.

prmoustache 4y ago
I guess we should expect our isp to start banning us without giving reason in the future too.
striking 4y ago
I kind of understand not wanting to be at the whims of your service provider, but Oracle is not a particularly amazing example of a typical SaaS provider in any sense of the word. Knowing the first thing about Oracle's history or how it operates should be enough for anyone to choose any other service provider. GCP's support has been fine for me, I've seen folks have acceptable experiences with AWS' support, etc., etc.; I don't really see this as a good reason to go off the grid unless that's something you're already looking to do.
- _huayra_ 4y ago
  This is actually my approach: move things to "self hosted in the cloud", then move to on-prem (hopefully timed to when I finally get a house after the housing slump gets worse in a year or so fingers crossed). Although the costs aren't monumental, it does add up more than using basic hardware at home (I live in an area with fairly cheap electricity). I also work for one of the major cloud providers, so it kinda pains me to know how fat the margins are and how much I'm getting "ripped off".
  - striking 4y ago
    Yeah, but a lot of that margin is from scale, no? The numbers aren't quite the same when it's just you working on your homelab. Definitely agree with self-hosting when it makes sense, but cost alone might not be a good reason.
    - _huayra_ 4y ago
      Yes, scale is a huge factor creating the margin. I'm actually on a team that is responsible for guiding the cloud part of the company in what hardware to buy (among other things), and I've seen the purchase orders; it is indeed incredible the deals one can cut when one buys hundreds of thousands of things. However, whatever deal one may be able to cut there must be accounted for in terms of the rest of COGS, including salaries, taxes, and everything else. The company charges well above COGS in order to turn a sizable profit, and to give some room to compress the profit margin should another cloud provider decide to pressure them on prices. Basically, the cost would be comparable if you invoiced yourself for your time setting up your homelab, and had to pay your spouse a fee for taking up a perfectly fine closet with noisy blinking lights.

prmoustache 4y ago

I guess we should expect our isp to start banning us without giving reason in the future too.

striking 4y ago

I kind of understand not wanting to be at the whims of your service provider, but Oracle is not a particularly amazing example of a typical SaaS provider in any sense of the word. Knowing the first thing about Oracle's history or how it operates should be enough for anyone to choose any other service provider. GCP's support has been fine for me, I've seen folks have acceptable experiences with AWS' support, etc., etc.; I don't really see this as a good reason to go off the grid unless that's something you're already looking to do.

_huayra_ 4y ago
This is actually my approach: move things to "self hosted in the cloud", then move to on-prem (hopefully timed to when I finally get a house after the housing slump gets worse in a year or so fingers crossed). Although the costs aren't monumental, it does add up more than using basic hardware at home (I live in an area with fairly cheap electricity). I also work for one of the major cloud providers, so it kinda pains me to know how fat the margins are and how much I'm getting "ripped off".
- striking 4y ago
  Yeah, but a lot of that margin is from scale, no? The numbers aren't quite the same when it's just you working on your homelab. Definitely agree with self-hosting when it makes sense, but cost alone might not be a good reason.
  - _huayra_ 4y ago
    Yes, scale is a huge factor creating the margin. I'm actually on a team that is responsible for guiding the cloud part of the company in what hardware to buy (among other things), and I've seen the purchase orders; it is indeed incredible the deals one can cut when one buys hundreds of thousands of things. However, whatever deal one may be able to cut there must be accounted for in terms of the rest of COGS, including salaries, taxes, and everything else. The company charges well above COGS in order to turn a sizable profit, and to give some room to compress the profit margin should another cloud provider decide to pressure them on prices. Basically, the cost would be comparable if you invoiced yourself for your time setting up your homelab, and had to pay your spouse a fee for taking up a perfectly fine closet with noisy blinking lights.