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It seems like the folks on HN tend to think the world runs on AWS (I'm not trying to say they don't have a huge market share), but many huge enterprises still r

It seems like the folks on HN tend to think the world runs on AWS (I'm not trying to say they don't have a huge market share), but many huge enterprises still run their own datacenters and buy ungodly amounts of hardware. The products that are on the market for an AWS-like experience on-prem are still fairly horrible. A lot of times the solutions are collaborations between vendors, which makes support a huge pain (finger pointing between companies). Or, a particular vendor might only have compute and storage, but no offering for SDN and vice-versa. This sucks because then you have two bespoke things to manage and hope they work together correct. These companies want a full AWS experience in their datacenter, and so far this looks to be the most promising without dedicating huge amounts of resources to something like Openstack.

lijok 3y ago
Wouldn't a "full AWS experience in their datacenter" be AWS Outpost?
- mustache_kimono 3y ago
  > "full AWS experience in their datacenter" ... Including the bill!
  - lijok 3y ago
    Part of AWS managed services offering. AWS Managed Wallet
- mardifoufs 3y ago
  Is AWS outpost truly a full AWS stack/experience? I thought it wasn't actually meant to be a "data center in a box" experience, but more so a way to run some workloads locally when you are already using AWS for everything else.
  - PeterCorless 3y ago
    Some data products will run successfully in AWS Outposts. Others will not. For example, AWS itself can't run DynamoDB in an AWS Outpost. It recommends users to run ScyllaDB in DynamoDB compatible mode. e.g., https://www.scylladb.com/2020/09/15/scylla-cloud-on-aws-outposts/ https://www.scylladb.com/2020/09/15/scylla-cloud-on-aws-outp... Disclosure: I worked at ScyllaDB.
adfm 3y ago
With DHH and others promoting a post-SaaS approach (once.com, etc.) we might see hardware refresh as cost-cutting. Astronomical compute bills and lack of granularity bring all things cloudy into sharp focus.
- threeseed 3y ago
  What they are doing is SaaS by stealth. You buy their product once, but it only has bug and security fixes for 3 years. Which means every business is going to need to upgrade on a cycle anyway.
  - mlindner 3y ago
    People don't usually throw out their server hardware after 3 years. After 3 years is up they'll probably sell service plans. And with the code being all open source some owners may go the self-supported route, though probably most will buy service plans.
    - threeseed 3y ago
      Was actually referring to DHH and the 37signals products. Whilst I think we will see a trend back towards more on-premise hardware I don't think SaaS is going away anytime soon. And in fact it's arguably better for everyone because the software is being continually maintained.
_zoltan_ 3y ago
OpenStack is pretty smooth sailing these days and I bet you it would be much cheaper to just get 3 FTEs for your OpenStack install than an Oxide rack
- linksnapzz 3y ago
  Where, exactly, are you getting these 3FTEs qualified to touch production OpenStack infra, for more than a year, where their aggregate cost is less than a rack of equipment?
  - gtirloni 3y ago
    The rack doesn't require FTEs?
    - linksnapzz 3y ago
      Not three of them; it ought to be about as difficult to administer as a single rack of hw, +Vsphere, if that.
  - _zoltan_ 3y ago
    if you need OpenStack you're not running one rack, but a couple dozen.
    - KAMSPioneer 3y ago
      That...sounds like a market segment you've just discovered for Oxide.
refulgentis 3y ago
The "(finger pointing between companies)" took me from confusion to 100% understanding, was at Google until recently. It was astonishing to me that it was universally acceptable to fingerpoint if it was outside your immediate group of ~80 people.* Took me from "why would people go with this over Dell?" to "holy shit, I'm expecting Dell to do software and make nvidia/red hat/etc/etc etc/etc etc etc help out. lol!" * also, how destructive it is. never, ever, ever let ppl talk shit about other ppl. There's a difference between "ugh, honestly, it seems like they're focused on release 11.0 this year" and "ughh they're usless idk what they're thinking??? stupid product anyway" and for whatever reason, B made you normal, A made you a tryhard pedant

lijok 3y ago

Wouldn't a "full AWS experience in their datacenter" be AWS Outpost?

mustache_kimono 3y ago
> "full AWS experience in their datacenter" ... Including the bill!
- lijok 3y ago
  Part of AWS managed services offering. AWS Managed Wallet
mardifoufs 3y ago
Is AWS outpost truly a full AWS stack/experience? I thought it wasn't actually meant to be a "data center in a box" experience, but more so a way to run some workloads locally when you are already using AWS for everything else.
- PeterCorless 3y ago
  Some data products will run successfully in AWS Outposts. Others will not. For example, AWS itself can't run DynamoDB in an AWS Outpost. It recommends users to run ScyllaDB in DynamoDB compatible mode. e.g., https://www.scylladb.com/2020/09/15/scylla-cloud-on-aws-outposts/ https://www.scylladb.com/2020/09/15/scylla-cloud-on-aws-outp... Disclosure: I worked at ScyllaDB.

adfm 3y ago

With DHH and others promoting a post-SaaS approach (once.com, etc.) we might see hardware refresh as cost-cutting. Astronomical compute bills and lack of granularity bring all things cloudy into sharp focus.

threeseed 3y ago
What they are doing is SaaS by stealth. You buy their product once, but it only has bug and security fixes for 3 years. Which means every business is going to need to upgrade on a cycle anyway.
- mlindner 3y ago
  People don't usually throw out their server hardware after 3 years. After 3 years is up they'll probably sell service plans. And with the code being all open source some owners may go the self-supported route, though probably most will buy service plans.
  - threeseed 3y ago
    Was actually referring to DHH and the 37signals products. Whilst I think we will see a trend back towards more on-premise hardware I don't think SaaS is going away anytime soon. And in fact it's arguably better for everyone because the software is being continually maintained.

_zoltan_ 3y ago

OpenStack is pretty smooth sailing these days and I bet you it would be much cheaper to just get 3 FTEs for your OpenStack install than an Oxide rack

linksnapzz 3y ago
Where, exactly, are you getting these 3FTEs qualified to touch production OpenStack infra, for more than a year, where their aggregate cost is less than a rack of equipment?
- gtirloni 3y ago
  The rack doesn't require FTEs?
  - linksnapzz 3y ago
    Not three of them; it ought to be about as difficult to administer as a single rack of hw, +Vsphere, if that.
- _zoltan_ 3y ago
  if you need OpenStack you're not running one rack, but a couple dozen.
  - KAMSPioneer 3y ago
    That...sounds like a market segment you've just discovered for Oxide.

refulgentis 3y ago

The "(finger pointing between companies)" took me from confusion to 100% understanding, was at Google until recently. It was astonishing to me that it was universally acceptable to fingerpoint if it was outside your immediate group of ~80 people.* Took me from "why would people go with this over Dell?" to "holy shit, I'm expecting Dell to do software and make nvidia/red hat/etc/etc etc/etc etc etc help out. lol!" * also, how destructive it is. never, ever, ever let ppl talk shit about other ppl. There's a difference between "ugh, honestly, it seems like they're focused on release 11.0 this year" and "ughh they're usless idk what they're thinking??? stupid product anyway" and for whatever reason, B made you normal, A made you a tryhard pedant