I'd say it's a positioning move by Gitlab to be a better acquisition target for Google. They might have hoped for Microsoft buying them, but since Microsoft beat Google in getting a hold of Github, they now are realigning. Makes sense.
Update on Our Planned Move from Azure to Google Cloud Platform
61–70 of 98 posts
Re: Update on Our Planned Move from Azure to Google Cloud Platform
#62Has anyone yet built a tool which will deploy an environment to all three major cloud providers and bench mark them against each?
There are a few "cloud portability" companies, but the fundamental problem with this approach is that cloud providers don't offer the same APIs and pricing models. If all you want is virtual machines and block storage, you can do it, but the answer is that your site is going to be more expensive on any of the providers than if you built it for an architecture that fits your cloud. If you design for the strengths of,…
Spot on! I like to compare it to building mobile apps. You can create an HTML based app that works on Android and iOS but it won’t take advantage of many of the native platform features. Similarly, VMs and block storage will run in any cloud but won’t be optimized for any vendor. It’s portability vs. optimized for the provider.
Re: Update on Our Planned Move from Azure to Google Cloud Platform
#63Seems silly to move just because MS bought github. Are there other compelling reasons?
When they were talking about moving off cloud altogether, they mentioned that the reason they were on Azure in the first place was that they were given a pile of free credits. So I suppose once those ran out it was a good idea to choose the best provider from first principles, rather than letting the inertia marketing succeed.
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Re: Update on Our Planned Move from Azure to Google Cloud Platform
#64Assuming a buy, gitlab becomes part of gcp offering in the coming future ? :D
That would be a pretty awesome development. But Google buying a Rails platform would be kind of a surprise move.
Google bought Crashlytics/Fabric from Twitter and that is (was?) a product based on the Rails stack
Re: Update on Our Planned Move from Azure to Google Cloud Platform
#65Looks like they're trying to get acquired by Google.
Re: Update on Our Planned Move from Azure to Google Cloud Platform
#66Assuming a buy, gitlab becomes part of gcp offering in the coming future ? :D
That would be a great way to force people to stop using gitlab.
It really seems like Google is becoming the new Micro$oft in ppls minds, while Microsoft is actually branching in two different “entities” Microsoft Cloud and Ol’Microsoft and the emergence of the cloud faction is changing (some) people’s perception of the overall brand name...
Re: Update on Our Planned Move from Azure to Google Cloud Platform
#67Earlier quoted context omitted.
Exactly my point for the most part. The fact that you basically had to provide a ELI5 here on HN for this, shows what a dismal job we, as an industry, have done to educate the larger world as to the best-practice of cloud selection should be. We, on HN, for the most part, can spout off this tribal-domain knowledge because we live it most days. But what would be great is to have these types of nuggest of information,…
Selecting a car is not straightforward at all.
Im talking about bike|motorcycle|car|bus more than Mercedes|BMW|Yugo type comparison...
Re: Update on Our Planned Move from Azure to Google Cloud Platform
#68Earlier quoted context omitted.
There are a few "cloud portability" companies, but the fundamental problem with this approach is that cloud providers don't offer the same APIs and pricing models. If all you want is virtual machines and block storage, you can do it, but the answer is that your site is going to be more expensive on any of the providers than if you built it for an architecture that fits your cloud. If you design for the strengths of,…
Spot on! I like to compare it to building mobile apps. You can create an HTML based app that works on Android and iOS but it won’t take advantage of many of the native platform features. Similarly, VMs and block storage will run in any cloud but won’t be optimized for any vendor. It’s portability vs. optimized for the provider.
it won’t take advantage of many of the native platform features
Kinda like how back in the day you could use Java and AWT just provided either the lowest common denominator widgets, or rendered the widgets itself to be equally unsatisfactory everywhere. Those who forget history...
Re: Update on Our Planned Move from Azure to Google Cloud Platform
#69I'd say it's a positioning move by Gitlab to be a better acquisition target for Google. They might have hoped for Microsoft buying them, but since Microsoft beat Google in getting a hold of Github, they now are realigning. Makes sense.
This is the feeling I get as well. Tighter integration with Kubernetes gets more people interested in using GCP and GKE.
Re: Update on Our Planned Move from Azure to Google Cloud Platform
#70Earlier quoted context omitted.
GitLab is VC backed, so they have to be looking for an exit/liquidity event, it’s inescapable. Google, Atlassian (roll it into Bitbucket) or Oracle, has to be one of them.
I honestly don't know, what is vc backed, and how does that turn it's destiny into an exit?
Venture capital is based on distinct funds which are raised one at a time. Each pool of money is distinct from the others that a VC might control. They need to report on them individually and they need to pay out of them individually.
The key is that each fund has a fixed lifetime, often something like 7-10 years. At the end of the lifetime the final value of the fund is returned to the investors.
It's hard to return cash you don't have -- and worse to return a reduction in value to investors (since you'll find it harder to raise next time). So as a practical necessity, at some point, there needs to be a big liquidity event for one or more investments made out of the fund. That could be an IPO or a purchase by another company.
Because of the highly speculative nature of VC, almost all of the companies supported out of a fund will fail. These will essentially be ignored. Some few of them will be bought at a price that covers their cost. A very few will do well enough that they are genuine prospects for a big liquidity events.
Those companies will be under the most pressure to cash out.
Gitlab has taken several rounds of funding now, some very large. These do not appear to have been made on the basis of current assets or current earnings. It seems reasonable to conclude that VCs predict a large exit and wish to ensure that Gitlab will make it to what is, for them, the finish line.
Disclaimer: I have never worked in finance and my views are cobbled together from books and blogposts.