You can choose the middle between AWS and baremetal. Something like DO apps. They provide managed deployment, db, object storage etc
Ask HN: Do I need AWS? Or am I thinking this wrong?
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Re: Ask HN: Do I need AWS? Or am I thinking this wrong?
#12> I'm keeping things simple, so I've got mostly Go services, pg + caching, and a svelte webapp. I deployed my Go services on a low-ish end bare metal provider, and for now it is fine. Deployments are triggered via scripts, and so far so good. Is it sexy, using all the latest and greatest tech? No, its just simple shell scripts. But it works? Don't change a thing. This is perfect. > Am I wrong to think that I could pr…
One thing I would point out is that the simplicity of StackOverflow's hardware stack means that it would also be very simple to host in a cloud provider like AWS.
I would also point out that StackOverflow isn't an incredibly good performer compared to a number of other websites. Check it out on PageSpeed Insights. I also used a couple other tools that suggest that it loads slower in some regions than others.
Re: Ask HN: Do I need AWS? Or am I thinking this wrong?
#13What are you doing for backups and redundancy? The main reason I use RDS and so forth is I pay AWS to do that for me. I do have a script which backs up my database to an on premise host so I can put it on a tape, but that is faintly ridiculous when AWS is so good.
Re: Ask HN: Do I need AWS? Or am I thinking this wrong?
#14>I'm also enjoying staying sane avoiding IAM. This sticks out to me. IAM isn't crazy, and having access controls in place is going to be the very first thing you want to do when you bring someone else on board. Maybe you're not there yet, but it would be a wise time investment to understand how these work, to the point where they don't feel confusing.
For a lifestyle business that's never going to grow into needing enterprise offerings, IAM is overkill. Like K8 would be for HN or other simple web forum.
Re: Ask HN: Do I need AWS? Or am I thinking this wrong?
#15If your current setup starts to feel insufficiently robust, then there are several options to consider before AWS, namely things like Heroku, Render, and Fly.io. You'll hear critical reviews about all of these, so do your research first.
Personally, I have used Heroku in production at more than one place, and plan on using it again.
Re: Ask HN: Do I need AWS? Or am I thinking this wrong?
#16Changing something for the sake of changing something is meaningless. If whatever works for you works - you're fine, don't change a thing. Though, I'd comment that you don't need to go all-in in AWS, you can use EC2 instances the same way as bare metal servers from Hetzner and get some cool benefits, if you need them (and ok with 10x+ extra costs) - easy backup/snapshots, migrations, better server access and manageme…
If you really want to use AWS, AWS Lightsail is the service to look into.
Re: Ask HN: Do I need AWS? Or am I thinking this wrong?
#17Using any cloud only makes sense if a) you don't know how to setup things yourself and b) your project is so big, that salaries for ops would be higher than cloud cost.
Also, be careful with b) since you still need people that know how to do stuff, otherwise, you will experience either data breach or long downtimes.
What most people won't admit when recommending cloud is that, yes, cloud has all sorts of utility built into, like data replication, backups, scaling, etc. but things go wrong in cloud as well and if you don't have good knowledge of how things work, you will be in for a wild ride.
IMO, it is much better to learn setup things yourself, even in non-optimized way and have some knowledge on what to do when stuff begins to break.
Re: Ask HN: Do I need AWS? Or am I thinking this wrong?
#18>I'm also enjoying staying sane avoiding IAM. This sticks out to me. IAM isn't crazy, and having access controls in place is going to be the very first thing you want to do when you bring someone else on board. Maybe you're not there yet, but it would be a wise time investment to understand how these work, to the point where they don't feel confusing.
For a lifestyle business that's never going to grow into needing enterprise offerings, IAM is overkill. Like K8 would be for HN or other simple web forum.
I disagree. IAM is like having a house with doors that lock. It doesn't matter how big or small your house is, you're going to want the ability to restrict who can go where and do what. It's part of basic security.
If they're not doing that, and their 1 server is talking to AWS resources, it means its using superadmin credentials. If that 1 server is compromised, can you see why that would be a bad idea?
Re: Ask HN: Do I need AWS? Or am I thinking this wrong?
#19You seem to manage fine. I do think most projects do not need AWS, and at work we run most of our infrastructure on our own servers (colo, we rent racks and buy servers).
Remember to consider more annoying points that can often become hidden costs, or hidden risks: - backups (and more importantly, restores :) ) - maintenance and security (you are in charge of the lower levels too) - decent authentication, authorization, and accounting (AAA) - SLA, both 'in theory' (what does the contract with your provider say) and 'in practice' (how much would an interruption could cost you and what happens if the provider does not respect SLA at all) - how do you handle outages (ideally you want to have a plan to know what to do when the obvious things go wrong. Then for the non-obvious things) - how do you transfer knowledge to a potential new employee. Is there only one person that know how something works. (called 'bus factor')
And yes, most of those also apply if you use AWS, but typically they would cover different parts or have different risks. And usually some associated product you can pay to manage that risk
Re: Ask HN: Do I need AWS? Or am I thinking this wrong?
#20>I'm also enjoying staying sane avoiding IAM. This sticks out to me. IAM isn't crazy, and having access controls in place is going to be the very first thing you want to do when you bring someone else on board. Maybe you're not there yet, but it would be a wise time investment to understand how these work, to the point where they don't feel confusing.
I'm not hugely familiar with IAM, but can't you get basically the same, for free, using Cloudflare Zero Trust or even Tailscale?