I have done a few zero downtown migrations. It is not rocket science if you do not use cloud-specific products.
Ask HN: Have you ever switched cloud?
181–190 of 268 posts
Re: Ask HN: Have you ever switched cloud?
#182At GitLab we went from AWS to Azure, then to Google Cloud (this was a few years ago). AWS was what we started with, and I think like most companies very little attention was paid to the costs, setup, etc. The result was that we were basically setting money on fire. I think at some point Azure announced $X in free credits for YC members, and GitLab determined this would save us something like a year's worth in bills (…
I switched from Azure to DigitalOcean to Hetzner. Reasons were as you stated, simpler cost model, simpler technology.
does hetzner have servers in US ? if not - if your app ok to be hosted in the EU ?
Re: Ask HN: Have you ever switched cloud?
#183Earlier quoted context omitted.
That "inevitably" is doing some really heavy lifting in your post. It practically never comes for most companies.
But most companies' dream is to reach that ""inevitable"" point where the cloud saves it; it becomes a bet where they either reach that level of scale, or die trying.
> But most companies' dream is to reach that ""inevitable"" point where the cloud saves it; it becomes a bet where they either reach that level of scale, or die trying.
And how many die trying due to bleeding all the funding to AWS, instead of running everything off a couple cheap boxes underneath the CTOs desk? I've been in at least one which ran out of money that way.
Don't pay for the future pipedream now, pay for what you need. That "inevitable" dream of near-infinite scale up usually never arrives for most companies. If it does, worry about it then.
Re: Ask HN: Have you ever switched cloud?
#184At GitLab we went from AWS to Azure, then to Google Cloud (this was a few years ago). AWS was what we started with, and I think like most companies very little attention was paid to the costs, setup, etc. The result was that we were basically setting money on fire. I think at some point Azure announced $X in free credits for YC members, and GitLab determined this would save us something like a year's worth in bills (…
One of the things I'm immensely curious about is how you handle security/networking/firewalls when working with Hetzner or other bare metal providers? It seems they don't provide network gear for firewalls and to protect against DDOS attacks?
Do you just use iptables? Or do you build out more complex solutions like software routers running on Linux/BSD?
I work in online gaming, and we're constantly seeing attacks on our infra.
Re: Ask HN: Have you ever switched cloud?
#185In my company, we were aware about the potential honeypots in each cloud and we developed our product from the first commit to be deployed on 3 (!) clouds: AWS, Azure, IBM. And while we made it work by sticking to the least common denominator which was FaaS/IaaS (Lambda, S3, API GW, K8s). It was certainly not easy. We also ignored tools that could've helped us greatly only against a single cloud in order to be multi…
Thanks for acknowledging how much harder this is when you use a cloud-specific feature. Modifying your codebase to migrate off some cloud specific service seems like it would be by far the hardest part of switching clouds.
Re: Ask HN: Have you ever switched cloud?
#186New CTO came into my previous place and forced a switch from AWS to GCP. It took 3 years and an enormous amount of effort just to help the bottom line a small amount. Totally ridiculous.
Re: Ask HN: Have you ever switched cloud?
#187At GitLab we went from AWS to Azure, then to Google Cloud (this was a few years ago). AWS was what we started with, and I think like most companies very little attention was paid to the costs, setup, etc. The result was that we were basically setting money on fire. I think at some point Azure announced $X in free credits for YC members, and GitLab determined this would save us something like a year's worth in bills (…
One of the things I'm immensely curious about is how you handle security/networking/firewalls when working with Hetzner or other bare metal providers? It seems they don't provide network gear for firewalls and to protect against DDOS attacks? Do you just use iptables? Or do you build out more complex solutions like software routers running on Linux/BSD? I work in online gaming, and we're constantly seeing attacks on…
If you have zero-cost internal network costs, I'd consider adding another server in front of the primary servers to act as a reverse-proxy and/or firewall. Basically, you'd use that server as a firewall and then pass only the good traffic onwards to your game servers, which are probably bigger and more expensive.
If there isn't a possibility for internal-networking (free), then I'd probably use the included iptables for a firewall on each machine. You should honestly have this running on the game servers anyway, if only to restrict communication to between the reverse-proxy and game server.
Re: Ask HN: Have you ever switched cloud?
#188Earlier quoted context omitted.
Funny, but honestly, a single dedicated server should easily be able to handle a million users, for most CRUD apps.
The cloud has normalized terrible underpowered VMs, so many new developers may just not be aware of how much performance a real dedicated machine has - even a relatively "mid range" one (i7 & 16 GB RAM).
> The cloud has normalized terrible underpowered VMs, so many new developers may just not be aware of how much performance a real dedicated machine has
This. I'm now seeing many younger developers with no exposure at all to hardware servers, only underpowered cloud VMs.
Not sure how to solve this, but I certainly enourage everyone to spend time now and then benchmarking cloud setup vs. local hardware to at least understand the performance spread and cost tradeoffs you're making.
I've seen too many setups paying 4 and even 5 digit US$ monthly bills to AWS, for workloads that could have been served off a single $1000 box without it breaking a sweat.
Re: Ask HN: Have you ever switched cloud?
#189Earlier quoted context omitted.
So it’s a bit in the future but managed postgres is something I want to offer through nimbus[0]. In the Meantime if you’re interested in other managed services, please sign up! [0]: https://nimbusws.com
I think your website is broken on mobile. The alignment is off and the contact form is cut off.
oh thanks -- I think I've got some image-jumping-border issues, looking into it right now!
Re: Ask HN: Have you ever switched cloud?
#190At GitLab we went from AWS to Azure, then to Google Cloud (this was a few years ago). AWS was what we started with, and I think like most companies very little attention was paid to the costs, setup, etc. The result was that we were basically setting money on fire. I think at some point Azure announced $X in free credits for YC members, and GitLab determined this would save us something like a year's worth in bills (…
One of the things I'm immensely curious about is how you handle security/networking/firewalls when working with Hetzner or other bare metal providers? It seems they don't provide network gear for firewalls and to protect against DDOS attacks? Do you just use iptables? Or do you build out more complex solutions like software routers running on Linux/BSD? I work in online gaming, and we're constantly seeing attacks on…
Hetzner has some built in DDOS protection but you should add your own: