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I don't need a VPS anymore

greenash.net.au

101–110 of 197 posts

Re: I don't need a VPS anymore

#101
post #98

I might need some perspective. Every time I read one of these I'm just shaking my head, and yes the arguments are Less Power, Less Control, but also SysAdmin is me. That is my identity, and the part of the job that I like the most. I solve problems with configuration before code. So I hate to think that I'm becoming obsolete, of course. I also don't think that I am, because I do think that my way has some clear and d…

I would note that every single company I've had in the last 8 years has essentially been replacing sysadmins with infra-knowledgable programmers working with AWS services (who might have been sysadmins in a past life). No one in the engineering org was hired who couldn't program. IT's "System Engineers" were aimed towards "you need to write code to do your job with LDAP/AD/Okta/etc". If someone identifies as a sysadm…

> [..] If someone identifies as a sysadmin and can't write Python/Perl/Go/Ruby [..]

this is the difference between a systems admin and a systems engineer. some folk can't make the jump from sysadmin, despite best intentions and training.

Re: I don't need a VPS anymore

#102

We had some BIG surprises with Netlify billing. Basically we use the functions they provide, and we racked up a HUGE ass bill. They charge PER request, meaning as soon as we deployed a semi "real time" interface for one app, the usage spiked. Really, "serverless" is just a fad, and overloaded term. How about you deploy containers instead, and MAYBE have your database provided by a "Saas" provider (database maintenanc…

maybe serverless is a fad, but it can be a very useful one to reduce costs.

our corp IT ops group has a google sheet that tracks staff's g suite/workspace-MDM'd corp mobile phones (is the OS updated? are the MDM policies up to date? when did the phone last check in, etc). the sheet is auto-updated every few minutes by a few lightweight cloud functions in GCP that query a few google APIs, state is stored in Datastore. the cost has never been more than $0.20 per month and it has semi-revolutionized how the corp tracked mobile devices.

of course our win was multiplied by our use of g suite + associated services and APIs. but, in our case, the savings in both hard and soft costs were very real.

Re: I don't need a VPS anymore

#103
I did some of this, but simpler: static sites on an Azure storage account with Cloudflare in front, moved some things to a homelab to get them off the Internet, etc.

But I don’t get using Netlify or other site providers, though. Seems like an unnecessary dependency on a free service that might go away.

Re: I don't need a VPS anymore

#105
post #103

I did some of this, but simpler: static sites on an Azure storage account with Cloudflare in front, moved some things to a homelab to get them off the Internet, etc. But I don’t get using Netlify or other site providers, though. Seems like an unnecessary dependency on a free service that might go away.

I used to use AWS S3 public bucket plus the AWS CDN and it works well. Now I tend to use Netilfy as it’s easier with fewer configuration steps (no need to setup the CDN or SSL certs). I know I can go back to my setup if they charge a fee.

Re: I don't need a VPS anymore

#106
post #22

I see it like this : Once there were a lot of free tera byte image hosting services. And then after some market ups and downs, most of them either closed down, asked for subscription fee or hugely restricted what can be done. Free static hosting services might not remain such for long. At the very least, they might introduce terms or condition you might not like. Then it will be harder for you to shift to another ser…

Sites hosted on Netlify literally just depend on a github repo with a TOML configuration file at the root. For basic static sites, which I imagine fit the needs of the majority of personal hosting, it's incredibly trivial to point the same repo at a different static hosting platform.

> just depend on a github repo

well, and: Netlify plus what that brings in.

Re: I don't need a VPS anymore

#108

I might need some perspective. Every time I read one of these I'm just shaking my head, and yes the arguments are Less Power, Less Control, but also SysAdmin is me. That is my identity, and the part of the job that I like the most. I solve problems with configuration before code. So I hate to think that I'm becoming obsolete, of course. I also don't think that I am, because I do think that my way has some clear and d…

[deleted]

Re: I don't need a VPS anymore

#109
> There are plenty of attack vectors: SSH credentials compromise; inadequate firewall setup; HTTP or other DDoS'ing; web application-level vulnerabilities (SQL injection, XSS, CSRF, etc); and un-patched system-level vulnerabilities (Log4j, Heartbleed, Shellshock, etc).

The irony is that serverless doesn't even solve half of those problems.

Re: I don't need a VPS anymore

#110

> There are plenty of attack vectors: SSH credentials compromise; inadequate firewall setup; HTTP or other DDoS'ing; web application-level vulnerabilities (SQL injection, XSS, CSRF, etc); and un-patched system-level vulnerabilities (Log4j, Heartbleed, Shellshock, etc). The irony is that serverless doesn't even solve half of those problems.

It doesn't, but it's someone else's problem.
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