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Almost every infrastructure decision I endorse or regret

cep.dev

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Re: Almost every infrastructure decision I endorse or regret

#281

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree. I’m afraid I’m one of those 00s developers and can relate. Back then many startups were being launched on super simple stacks. With all of that complexity/word salad from TFA, where’s the value delivered? Presumably there’s a product somewhere under all that infrastructure, but damn, what’s left to spend on it after all the infrastructure variable costs? I get it’s a list of preferences, but still once you’v…

> Do we ever seek simplicity in software engineering products? Doubtfully. Simplicity of work breakdown structure - maybe. Legibility for management layers, possibly. Structural integrity of your CYA armor? 100%. The half-life of a software project is what now, a few years at most these days? Months, in webdev? Why build something that is robust, durable, efficient, make all the correct engineering choices, where you…

Don't worry, AI will wash all that away. Nothing says simplicity like an incomprehensible black box!

Re: Almost every infrastructure decision I endorse or regret

#282
> Using cert-manager to manage SSL certificates

> Very intuitive to configure and has worked well with no issues. Highly recommend using it to create your Let’s Encrypt certificates for Kubernetes.

> The only downside is we sometimes have ANCIENT (SaaS problems am I right?) tech stack customers that don’t trust Let’s Encrypt, and you need to go get a paid cert for those.

Cert-manager allows you to use any CA you like including paid ones without automation.

Re: Almost every infrastructure decision I endorse or regret

#283

> Picking AWS over Google Cloud I know this is an unpopular opinion but I think google cloud is amazing compared to AWS. I use google cloud run and it works like a dream. I have never found an easier way to get a docker container running in the cloud. The services all have sensible names, there are fewer more important services compared to the mess of AWS services, and the UI is more intuitive. The only downside I ha…

GCP's SDK and documentation is a mess compared to AWS. And looking at the source code I don't see how it can get better any time soon. AWS seems to have proper design in mind and uses less abstractions giving you freedom to build what you need. AWS CDK is great for IAC.

The only weird part I experienced with AWS is their SNS API. Maybe due to legacy reasons, but what a bizarre mess when you try doing it cross-account. This one is odd.

I have been trying GCP for a while and DevX was horrible. The only part that more-or-less works is CLI but the naming there is inconsistent and not as well-done as in AWS. But it's relative and subjective, so I guess someone likes it. I have experienced GCP official guides that broken, untested or utterly braindead hello-world-useless. And also they are numerous and spread so it takes time to find anything decent.

No dark mode is an extra punch. Seriously. Tried to make it myself with an extension but their page is Angular hell of millions embedded divs. No thank you.

And since you mentioned Cloud Run -- it takes 3 seconds to deploy a Lambda version in AWS and a minute or more for GCP Could Function.

Re: Almost every infrastructure decision I endorse or regret

#284
post #266

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I do that. In fact I've been doing it for years, because every time I do the math, AWS is unreasonably expensive and my solo-founder SaaS would much rather keep the extra money. I think there is an unreasonable fear of "doing the routing and everything". I run vpncloud, my server clusters are managed using ansible, and can be set up from either a list of static IPs or from a terraform-prepared configuration. The same…

I was more talking about physical backbone connection which hetzner does for you. We are using hetzner cloud.. but we are also scaling up and down a lot right now

You usually just do colocation. The data center will give you a rack (or space for one), an upstream gateway to your ISP, and redundant power. You still have to manage a firewall and your internal network equipment, but its not really that bad. I've used PFsense firewalls, configured by them for like $1500, with roaming vpn, high availability, point to point vpn, and as secure as reasonably possible. After that it's the same thing as the cloud except its physical servers.

Re: Almost every infrastructure decision I endorse or regret

#287

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was more talking about physical backbone connection which hetzner does for you. We are using hetzner cloud.. but we are also scaling up and down a lot right now

You usually just do colocation. The data center will give you a rack (or space for one), an upstream gateway to your ISP, and redundant power. You still have to manage a firewall and your internal network equipment, but its not really that bad. I've used PFsense firewalls, configured by them for like $1500, with roaming vpn, high availability, point to point vpn, and as secure as reasonably possible. After that it's…

i mean, yes.. but you pay for that, and colocation + server deprication in the case i calculated was higher then just renting the servers

Re: Almost every infrastructure decision I endorse or regret

#288

I’m imagining a developer in the 90s/00s reading this list and being baffled by the complexity/terminology

The more complex you make it the better your job security eh? Maybe they’ll even give you a whole team to look after it all. Absolute madness.

Re: Almost every infrastructure decision I endorse or regret

#290
post #259

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Times have changed. If you have C# programmers and they can't do it in Entity Framework/LINQ, then they can't do it.

This seems like a stereotype from 2010s and disconnected from reality today.

Nope. None of my below 30 colleagues know SQL. They use ORM in REPL or visual tools.
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