Live data from Hacker News

Launch HN: Nullstone (YC W22) – An easier way to deploy and manage cloud apps

news.ycombinator.com

31–40 of 67 posts

Re: Launch HN: Nullstone (YC W22) – An easier way to deploy and manage cloud apps

#31

These look all the same. I honestly don't know how people choose one over the other. It's like roulette, gotta pick a random one.

It is interesting that YC has invested in many of these similar PaaS already and they keep doing it. Some names that I have come across (all are YC backed):

- Nullstone

- Aptible

- Porter

- Flight Control

- Fly.io

I have a feeling I am missing more.

Re: Launch HN: Nullstone (YC W22) – An easier way to deploy and manage cloud apps

#32

I am looking for a service that helps me orchestrate the deployments of docker containers in AWS. These containers run Python workloads, but are not web-api endpoints. I want to be able to deploy them programmatically and, pause them if they've been idle (something like what supabase does). Is this something you are looking to provide? From a quick glance at your docs, it seems that you are mainly focussing on web fa…

Check out AWS Copilot CLI: https://aws.github.io/copilot-cli/

This is by far the best way to deploy compute into AWS in containerized workloads.

The abstraction you want is Jobs: https://aws.github.io/copilot-cli/docs/concepts/jobs/

Building this any other way on AWS would require provisioning multiple artifacts. The Copilot Jobs abstraction basically encapsulates the provisioning of those artifacts into one repeatable pattern.

Fully extensible with CDK and CF if the out-of-the-box workload abstractions aren't enough or you need deeper customization. I have found that the OOB abstractions are "right-sized" for most common workloads and rarely require extension aside from occasionally IAM when integrating with other AWS services.

Re: Launch HN: Nullstone (YC W22) – An easier way to deploy and manage cloud apps

#33
post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for the feedback! I do think that AI is going to have a massive impact on development including cloud infrastructure; however, we rarely see junior developers setting up cloud infrastructure because it is dangerous. Our motivation is to make the cloud easier for all skill levels. In many organizations, this usually requires platform engineers or lead engineers that determine what works best with their technica…

> we rarely see junior developers setting up cloud infrastructure because it is dangerous. So whom is this for? Doesn’t this set up cloud infrastructure? Dangerous how exactly? It’s not a tautology. Someone who can’t handle like, using AWS directly, is a junior developer. Another perspective is the founderese is not very reassuring.

Sorry for the confusion. It's dangerous for junior developers to interact directly with cloud providers. Our motivation is to provide guard rails for developers of all skill levels to build and run their infrastructure without exposing their organization to risk.

Here are some dangers we've seen from our customers: - Misconfigurations that result in no backups, disabled encryption, etc. - Resources accidentally configured with Internet access - Exposing internal secrets or credentials in source code - Misconfiguration of IaC that results in destruction of databases

I'm not claiming that we have eliminated these dangers. Instead, our goal is to provide a platform for software teams to codify their security and compliance practices so that all developers on their team can avoid these dangers.

Re: Launch HN: Nullstone (YC W22) – An easier way to deploy and manage cloud apps

#34
post #26

Good to see tools like this. However, are you not affected by the recent change in the Terraform licensing?

We are a Hashicorp Tech Partner (https://www.hashicorp.com/partners/tech/nullstone#all). This partnership requires that we're not competitive in nature.

We have plans on our roadmap to support other IaC tooling if Hashicorp makes future changes to their licensing that prevents this arrangement.

Re: Launch HN: Nullstone (YC W22) – An easier way to deploy and manage cloud apps

#35

I am looking for a service that helps me orchestrate the deployments of docker containers in AWS. These containers run Python workloads, but are not web-api endpoints. I want to be able to deploy them programmatically and, pause them if they've been idle (something like what supabase does). Is this something you are looking to provide? From a quick glance at your docs, it seems that you are mainly focussing on web fa…

Nullstone does support this use case, all applications are private by default. In order to make them public, you would add a Load Balancer, CDN, or Api Gateway. In your case, just don't add this and your application will remain private.

We don't currently support the automatic pause of applications due to inactivity. However, we do support starting/stopping your app via the UI, API, or CLI.

Re: Launch HN: Nullstone (YC W22) – An easier way to deploy and manage cloud apps

#36

I am looking for a service that helps me orchestrate the deployments of docker containers in AWS. These containers run Python workloads, but are not web-api endpoints. I want to be able to deploy them programmatically and, pause them if they've been idle (something like what supabase does). Is this something you are looking to provide? From a quick glance at your docs, it seems that you are mainly focussing on web fa…

This is something we support as well. You're correct that most of our documentation (including quickstarts) focuses primarily on web-facing apps.

Our current modules support running Python jobs using Fargate/ECS and Lambda (using Docker containers or packaged zip files).

Today, it is possible to pause workloads by destroying the app (nullstone down --app=). Obviously, that's not ideal and we do have plans to support pausing workloads to reduce costs.

Re: Launch HN: Nullstone (YC W22) – An easier way to deploy and manage cloud apps

#37

Congrats on the launch... tbh, I have tried so many alternatives to this issue (as a Rails dev) and 'til today, I still find the oddest one of the all to be the only one straightforward enough to match the Heroku paradigm, that would be Hatchbox (which only dwells with Rails deployments). I will give this a shot, but I'm skeptical. Also, I want to thank the Dokku team, since recently I tried a few deployments and whi…

We appreciate the honesty, but more importantly, we appreciate the willingness to try another one out. We welcome your feedback to see where we're doing things right or wrong.

Re: Launch HN: Nullstone (YC W22) – An easier way to deploy and manage cloud apps

#38

Congrats on the launch... tbh, I have tried so many alternatives to this issue (as a Rails dev) and 'til today, I still find the oddest one of the all to be the only one straightforward enough to match the Heroku paradigm, that would be Hatchbox (which only dwells with Rails deployments). I will give this a shot, but I'm skeptical. Also, I want to thank the Dokku team, since recently I tried a few deployments and whi…

Thanks!

In terms of matching the simplicity of Heroku, I feel like Render is probably the closest thing to it.

I'm curious, anything in particular that you are skeptical about?

Re: Launch HN: Nullstone (YC W22) – An easier way to deploy and manage cloud apps

#39

I am looking for a service that helps me orchestrate the deployments of docker containers in AWS. These containers run Python workloads, but are not web-api endpoints. I want to be able to deploy them programmatically and, pause them if they've been idle (something like what supabase does). Is this something you are looking to provide? From a quick glance at your docs, it seems that you are mainly focussing on web fa…

Check out AWS Copilot CLI: https://aws.github.io/copilot-cli/ This is by far the best way to deploy compute into AWS in containerized workloads. The abstraction you want is Jobs: https://aws.github.io/copilot-cli/docs/concepts/jobs/ Building this any other way on AWS would require provisioning multiple artifacts. The Copilot Jobs abstraction basically encapsulates the provisioning of those artifacts into one repeatab…

AWS Copilot has been great for deploying `services`. But I wasn't sure if the `jobs` were what I was looking for, since they are event triggered. I'll test it our now.

Essentially I'd like to build a docker image of code from a repository, and deploy and run it, and manage its lifecycle. Perhaps I could copy the CF template from the Copilot to do the same.

Re: Launch HN: Nullstone (YC W22) – An easier way to deploy and manage cloud apps

#40
post #36

I am looking for a service that helps me orchestrate the deployments of docker containers in AWS. These containers run Python workloads, but are not web-api endpoints. I want to be able to deploy them programmatically and, pause them if they've been idle (something like what supabase does). Is this something you are looking to provide? From a quick glance at your docs, it seems that you are mainly focussing on web fa…

This is something we support as well. You're correct that most of our documentation (including quickstarts) focuses primarily on web-facing apps. Our current modules support running Python jobs using Fargate/ECS and Lambda (using Docker containers or packaged zip files). Today, it is possible to pause workloads by destroying the app (nullstone down --app= ). Obviously, that's not ideal and we do have plans to support…

Gotcha, do you also provide functions to build and store docker images from a code repo?
Post reply on HN