So You Wanna Go On-Prem • Hacker News Board

Re: So You Wanna Go On-Prem

#101

Post by davidmr » Wed, May 25, 2016, 4:20 AM UTC

tomjen3 wrote: post #57

davidmr wrote: post #45

This is a subject near and dear to my heart, albeit from the "enterprise" side of the table, not the scrappy startup side. I've spent a non-trivial amount of effort trying to convince software companies to spin an on-premise version of their software. Sometimes with success, and sometimes not. I understand that it's quite attractive to rely on AWS or GCE abstractions to the point where it would be nearly impossible t…

Given how much code is on github, I no longer think protection of intellectual property is a valid excuse. It may be a requirement from your boss.

I'm sorry, but I have absolutely no idea what you're trying to say. Would you mind providing an alternate phrasing for your comment?

Re: So You Wanna Go On-Prem

#102

Post by emodendroket » Wed, May 25, 2016, 1:23 PM UTC

jaggederest wrote: post #100

emodendroket wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, that model works, but it is going to use up resources that simply will not be an issue if you're running entirely as a service.

You just have to charge enough to make it worth it.

I guess so, but the whole point here is that there are a lot of hidden costs you might not have considered if you've operated 100% SaaS.

Re: So You Wanna Go On-Prem

#103

Post by k__ » Wed, May 25, 2016, 4:30 PM UTC

Things I learned after 10 years of dealing with enterprise customers.

1. They want on premise.

2. They want key account people to talk to.

You don't need multi tenancy. You often get your own server to run on AND a local ops guy. It's a bit like an exclusive cloud.

Yes, the deployments are a bit harder, since you often can't simply drop in a new version over the internet. This is why you need more ops to handle this all.

But if I wanted to sell to enterprises I wouldn't got into the cloud in the first few years after starting the company.

If the system works fine, it's a no-brainer to deploy it in the cloud and you already have all the ops people to maintain this...

Re: So You Wanna Go On-Prem

#104

Post by jaggederest » Wed, May 25, 2016, 7:22 PM UTC

emodendroket wrote: post #102

jaggederest wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You just have to charge enough to make it worth it.

I guess so, but the whole point here is that there are a lot of hidden costs you might not have considered if you've operated 100% SaaS.

My wild-ass-guess starting point is at least $2.5m/y with a 5 year commitment to make it anywhere near worth it.

Re: So You Wanna Go On-Prem

#105

Post by pnathan » Wed, May 25, 2016, 8:33 PM UTC

mr_tristan wrote: post #18

pnathan wrote: post #6

One thing I would call out: don't do CI to these people. Eat the pain and cut honest-to-goodness versions. Ideally, cut them on the quarter, so that your customers can comfortably expect a New Version to be available at a specific time. I used to be on the other side of this desk, so.... trust me. It makes it easier when we can all refer to a specific version. You can throw us specific patches or whatever. From the d…

I think you mean "don't expect to do CD to these people". CI is "developers check in code and everything is integrated daily". CD adds "and then we push it out live if tests pass". I've worked on software products that attempted CD, and it's not gotten a lot of great acceptance. Customers don't really want constant notifications about having to upgrade, except for very serious fixes. And I don't know many IT departme…

Whoops, yes, you're right. Misnomer. >.>