Dropbox’s Exodus from the Amazon Cloud
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Re: Dropbox’s Exodus from the Amazon Cloud
#2Hi HN! A couple of us from the Magic Pocket software team are around to answer questions if anyone has some.
Re: Dropbox’s Exodus from the Amazon Cloud
#3A short mention of their use of Rust appears!
Re: Dropbox’s Exodus from the Amazon Cloud
#4Oh dear I didn't realise Dropbox had invested all of that time and money moving into their own data centre. From my perspective the future of Dropbox looks bleak. Mass storage with Amazon is much cheaper [edit: from a consumer perspective]. I know Dropbox has superior software that works (as opposed to the poor apps by Amazon and Google) but I imagine a lot of people are like me i.e. Store most of the stuff at the cheapest location and use Dropbox just for docs that you want to sync on multiple devices. Total income from consumers like me equals 0.
Dropbox also had that email app didn't they that they recently announced was closing down - mailbox if I recall correctly.
Can anyone convince me that this move by Dropbox isn't going to end very badly for them?
EDIT: downvoters - is HN unable to have a debate about whether this was a smart move or not.
Re: Dropbox’s Exodus from the Amazon Cloud
#5Oh dear I didn't realise Dropbox had invested all of that time and money moving into their own data centre. From my perspective the future of Dropbox looks bleak. Mass storage with Amazon is much cheaper [edit: from a consumer perspective]. I know Dropbox has superior software that works (as opposed to the poor apps by Amazon and Google) but I imagine a lot of people are like me i.e. Store most of the stuff at the ch…
> Oh dear I didn't realise Dropbox had invested all of that time and money moving into their own data centre.
We've had our own datacenters for a very long time; this project just represents moving "blob storage" into our own datacenter rather than just metadata.
> Mass storage with Amazon is much cheaper
As the article says, in Dropbox's particular case this is very untrue. Although I agree with your general point that, absent having something like Dropbox's scale/resources, just using S3 is probably your best bet.
> Can anyone convince me that this move by Dropbox isn't going to end very badly for them?
So, wrt "ending badly", the project has already happened. It's more efficient, faster, more flexible, etc. So I can say with some confidence it won't end badly. :-)
Re: Dropbox’s Exodus from the Amazon Cloud
#6Oh dear I didn't realise Dropbox had invested all of that time and money moving into their own data centre. From my perspective the future of Dropbox looks bleak. Mass storage with Amazon is much cheaper [edit: from a consumer perspective]. I know Dropbox has superior software that works (as opposed to the poor apps by Amazon and Google) but I imagine a lot of people are like me i.e. Store most of the stuff at the ch…
> Oh dear I didn't realise Dropbox had invested all of that time and money moving into their own data centre. We've had our own datacenters for a very long time; this project just represents moving "blob storage" into our own datacenter rather than just metadata. > Mass storage with Amazon is much cheaper As the article says, in Dropbox's particular case this is very untrue. Although I agree with your general point t…
Sorry I think you misunderstand me. Technically it sounds like a great achievement. Well done! Ending badly I mean that in 5 years time Dropbox will be left with a load of servers and a business model in tatters. It's the economics I think will end badly
Also I am sure the in house data centre looks cheaper to Dropbox - but now they have their own hardware on the balance sheet. But I meant cheaper from a consumer point of view - I get unlimited storage at Amazon for $60 a year.
Re: Dropbox’s Exodus from the Amazon Cloud
#7Oh dear I didn't realise Dropbox had invested all of that time and money moving into their own data centre. From my perspective the future of Dropbox looks bleak. Mass storage with Amazon is much cheaper [edit: from a consumer perspective]. I know Dropbox has superior software that works (as opposed to the poor apps by Amazon and Google) but I imagine a lot of people are like me i.e. Store most of the stuff at the ch…
Not at all, cost/TB of S3 is much higher compared to what you can build provided you know how to build it yourself.
Re: Dropbox’s Exodus from the Amazon Cloud
#8Oh dear I didn't realise Dropbox had invested all of that time and money moving into their own data centre. From my perspective the future of Dropbox looks bleak. Mass storage with Amazon is much cheaper [edit: from a consumer perspective]. I know Dropbox has superior software that works (as opposed to the poor apps by Amazon and Google) but I imagine a lot of people are like me i.e. Store most of the stuff at the ch…
> Total income from consumers like me equals 0
That doesn't matter, they have gained a good foothold in SMEs which is where the real money is.
> Dropbox also had that email app
That was a peculiar acquisition, I guess more of a acquihire for a team that made some waves in UI design. They would have folded anyway, Google has caught up with the "swiping todo" concept.
> Can anyone convince me that this move by Dropbox isn't going to end very badly for them?
A company on that size has many metrics they can use to define success. Owning your metal is a big investment, but it also brings a level of control and performance that you will never get from outsourced infrastructure. Google became Google without AWS ever entering the picture, after all.
I think these are the first moves in a wave of "de-cloudification" by the fields' own pioneers. The longer you've been on the cloud, the more you're intimately aware of its limits and its costs. No technology is a silver bullet.
Re: Dropbox’s Exodus from the Amazon Cloud
#9Oh dear I didn't realise Dropbox had invested all of that time and money moving into their own data centre. From my perspective the future of Dropbox looks bleak. Mass storage with Amazon is much cheaper [edit: from a consumer perspective]. I know Dropbox has superior software that works (as opposed to the poor apps by Amazon and Google) but I imagine a lot of people are like me i.e. Store most of the stuff at the ch…
Their service is primarily for consumers and many large companies won't use them, favoring an in-house solution or an offering from a specialized company. That's a dangerous position to be in, as consumers are fickle and are liable to drop the service at a moment's notice.
Dropbox is probably trying to position themselves as a secure data storage solution for larger organizations. Being on Amazon scares away a lot of people. I'm sure we'll hear about some new paid services from them which will be compliant with all manner of regulations. This will open them up to huge multi-million dollar contracts and they'll get baked into some big companies for years to come.
Re: Dropbox’s Exodus from the Amazon Cloud
#10Oh dear I didn't realise Dropbox had invested all of that time and money moving into their own data centre. From my perspective the future of Dropbox looks bleak. Mass storage with Amazon is much cheaper [edit: from a consumer perspective]. I know Dropbox has superior software that works (as opposed to the poor apps by Amazon and Google) but I imagine a lot of people are like me i.e. Store most of the stuff at the ch…
Not at all, cost/TB of S3 is much higher compared to what you can build provided you know how to build it yourself.
And provided your management costs are lower than Amazon's profit on S3.
There's an infection point somewhere at which owning your own hardware and paying someone to acquire, build, manage, and maintain it becomes cheaper than renting from someone who does the same thing at scale and makes a profit off of it.
Dropbox is probably there, but many small web apps are not.