Earlier quoted context omitted.
I do contract devops for both physical servers (that includes me occasionally travelling to a data center), managed servers in a full service colo, and AWS, and the overall cost per server consistently ends up higher including all devops time for the AWS instance in my experience. I love it when customers pick AWS (though I usually advice not to, unless they have very specific needs), as my billable hours are way hig…
All our duelling anecdotes aside, you've picked out the one category I would most definitely not host on AWS: high constant outbound traffic sites. "Don't build your CDN on AWS", I can agree about that. Using public clouds for the spiky part of an otherwise predictable steady-state workload is also a great strategy. Also this: > Their biggest benefit is to defer the initial setup of a self-managed cluster And that, I…
As for the CDN, we absolutely agree. I noted elsewhere that even if you host on AWS, if you have any kind of volume of outbound bandwidth use, you should probably get a CDN elsewhere whether or not you think you need a CDN. A good caching CDN can for many people cut their AWS bill dramatically without making you move anything else off AWS.