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I've been following Oxide for awhile and it certainly seems like a really neat operation, but I hope they consider going downmarket someday too. At least around

by xoa 3y ago

I've been following Oxide for awhile and it certainly seems like a really neat operation, but I hope they consider going downmarket someday too. At least around here a lot of the demand for self-host stuff is in SMB, and while undoubtedly it's a much smaller market it'd be nice if some of this innovation, openness and self-reliance was available even to those without super deep pockets. I can completely understand starting with the high end, there is much higher margin and a much better revenue:support ratio. But it'd be awesome to have 5-figure or even 4-figure options down the road that could be used. Might also, as with so many times, end up helping develop pipeline down the road. As it is just fun to read about.

steveklabnik 3y ago
We for sure love the support we've gotten from folks who say "Hey I don't need a full rack but I love what you're doing." The issue isn't desire, it's more of focus and design difficulty. The design of the product starts from "what if you're building servers by the rack," and so a lot of choices make sense in that context, but not necessarily others. So building something smaller means effectively building a different product. And of course, many companies have multiple product lines, but they're also much more mature than we are: we've only shipped two racks so far (more to come soon!). And that's where the "focus" comes in: we need to build a sustainable company first, and then expand second. I can't speak to where the future goes, and if we will eventually go in that direction, or on what timescale, but what I can say is that we hear you on our side.
- xoa 3y ago
  First thanks so much for the reply! As I said I completely understand this as a starting approach, lots of good reasons for it. I just hope that if you do well and refine things you'll be able to scale down the approach someday. That said: >The design of the product starts from "what if you're building servers by the rack," As you surely know, there are a lot of racks that are smaller than 42/48U ;). I'm not at all opposed to your "build by the rack" approach, I'm just hoping eventually there might be options from you that are 12U or 18U racks, or 42U racks where 6/12/18/24/36U/whatever are your stuff and then there is a bit of extra space for a handful of customer misc racked options that don't fit into your buckets (a couple of racked Macs for example which surprisingly yes can still be a thing). Anyway, absolutely you'd have to make it that far, absolutely don't want to see you succumb to the classic startup issue of over expansion ahead of scale efficiencies and running out of runway. But what you're doing is exciting, and I guess I just hope to see the benefits get more decentralized someday is all. Right now I have a hodgepodge of OPNsense/Omada/UniFi/TrueNAS/Proxmox(formerly VMware but now that's down the toilet)/etc deployed with various clients and for myself in rural new england, works well overall including when the WAN drops as is fairly regular, but it'd be real helpful to have more refined options someday! So wishing Oxide the best of luck.
  - bogomipz 3y ago
    Out of curiosity what data centers environments commonly have racks less that 42U?
    - deleted 3y ago
      [deleted]
    - oceanplexian 3y ago
      You can rent a partial rack space from almost any colocation provider, and they come in units all the way from 1U to 42U. When I did my first startup it was done out of two 1U servers that I rented the space for at about $150 a month including power and bandwidth. My partner and I got access badges, walked in and racked and cabled them ourselves.

by xoa 3y ago

steveklabnik 3y ago

We for sure love the support we've gotten from folks who say "Hey I don't need a full rack but I love what you're doing." The issue isn't desire, it's more of focus and design difficulty. The design of the product starts from "what if you're building servers by the rack," and so a lot of choices make sense in that context, but not necessarily others. So building something smaller means effectively building a different product. And of course, many companies have multiple product lines, but they're also much more mature than we are: we've only shipped two racks so far (more to come soon!). And that's where the "focus" comes in: we need to build a sustainable company first, and then expand second. I can't speak to where the future goes, and if we will eventually go in that direction, or on what timescale, but what I can say is that we hear you on our side.

xoa 3y ago
First thanks so much for the reply! As I said I completely understand this as a starting approach, lots of good reasons for it. I just hope that if you do well and refine things you'll be able to scale down the approach someday. That said: >The design of the product starts from "what if you're building servers by the rack," As you surely know, there are a lot of racks that are smaller than 42/48U ;). I'm not at all opposed to your "build by the rack" approach, I'm just hoping eventually there might be options from you that are 12U or 18U racks, or 42U racks where 6/12/18/24/36U/whatever are your stuff and then there is a bit of extra space for a handful of customer misc racked options that don't fit into your buckets (a couple of racked Macs for example which surprisingly yes can still be a thing). Anyway, absolutely you'd have to make it that far, absolutely don't want to see you succumb to the classic startup issue of over expansion ahead of scale efficiencies and running out of runway. But what you're doing is exciting, and I guess I just hope to see the benefits get more decentralized someday is all. Right now I have a hodgepodge of OPNsense/Omada/UniFi/TrueNAS/Proxmox(formerly VMware but now that's down the toilet)/etc deployed with various clients and for myself in rural new england, works well overall including when the WAN drops as is fairly regular, but it'd be real helpful to have more refined options someday! So wishing Oxide the best of luck.
- bogomipz 3y ago
  Out of curiosity what data centers environments commonly have racks less that 42U?
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
  - oceanplexian 3y ago
    You can rent a partial rack space from almost any colocation provider, and they come in units all the way from 1U to 42U. When I did my first startup it was done out of two 1U servers that I rented the space for at about $150 a month including power and bandwidth. My partner and I got access badges, walked in and racked and cabled them ourselves.