So with all the money raised, it's telling me there is a chance of a home-lab Oxide rack :-) (Congrats guys)
Oxide Computer raises $445M (SEC Form D)
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Re: Oxide Computer raises $445M (SEC Form D)
#102Earlier quoted context omitted.
I doubt that. Oxide was founded by a bunch of ex-Sun people who have already been burned by the Oracle acquisition. If you read through what they say, their company values, and how they act, it's pretty clear their intent is to grow a sustainable long-term business and they're not looking for an exit.
VC funding is not for "a sustainable long-term business".
We are trying to build a sustainable long-term business! It's just that you need enormous amounts of money to get there when shipping this large a product.
The idea behind VC funding generally is that you need large infusions of capital to get to the point where the business becomes sustainable long-term. The first one is the most expensive, and so on. Hardware is capital-intensive compared to SaaS, and especially so in the current environment.
Re: Oxide Computer raises $445M (SEC Form D)
#103I've been following closely and have been both very impressed with what they're building but also very disappointed. They have a great vision for a seamless hardware project, but completely missed the point of what the software automation to tie it all together should look like.
I'd love to give Bryan Cantrill or ahl a 30 min demo. Feel free to ping!
Re: Oxide Computer raises $445M (SEC Form D)
#104Earlier quoted context omitted.
Logical. They probably will be aquihired by someone like Broadcom.
Is there anything they're doing that can't be replicated by hypervisor/management software on commodity x86 servers? Seems like their "secret sauce" is a software stack that "just works" more than any actual special feature of the hardware . I feel like Broadcom with its VMWare acquisition could easily take these guys out if they wanted to (or for that matter, any OEM that has a line of servers + network & storage ha…
Their machines are x86 but they've rearchitected basically everything else in the pursuit of a cohesive and integrated machine, they don't even have a BIOS. The secret sauce is having full control of the software stack, and as close to full control of the firmware as is possible on x86.
Re: Oxide Computer raises $445M (SEC Form D)
#105Earlier quoted context omitted.
Joyent was founded in 2004. Bryan joined in 2014 - I doubt he had much, if any, say in the sale proceeding or not.
He became CTO in 2014. I was familiar with him at Joyent some years before that though. edit/update: and the Samsung acquisition was in 2016. So I'd hope the CTO would have _some_ involvement in that decision.
This all became pretty personal over here!
To answer these questions (or accusations?): Yes, I was at Joyent for the acquisition by Samsung -- but I also was not a founder, did not have a board seat, etc., so the involvement that I had, while substantial at some level (working with the Samsung team when they were doing their significant due diligence, for example) was also ultimately limited. My job was to make the acquisition work, not to determine the fate of the company for which I was ultimately an employee.
It's also absurd to call the sale a "sellout" -- the company was not for sale when Samsung came calling. The deal that Samsung proposed was a good and fair one, and if I HAD been on the board, I would have absolutely voted for the acquisition. (It should be said that Samsung themselves had a very high threshold to close the deal -- 97% of shares IIRC?)
And all of THAT said: while I was supportive of the acquisition by Samsung of Joyent (and worked hard to make that acquisition work), when we started Oxide, Steve and I had (and have!) zero interest in building a company to be acquired. Oxide is our life's work (and I mean that "our" broadly, as many at Oxide feel that same calling), and our objective with Oxide is to build an independent, generational company. Indeed, this Series D is all about advancing that objective!
Re: Oxide Computer raises $445M (SEC Form D)
#106Re: Oxide Computer raises $445M (SEC Form D)
#107Earlier quoted context omitted.
You’re expressing a very narrow engineer’s perspective that doesn’t consider the realities of managing bare metal hosting at any kind of scale. These are business decisions, made in terms of core competencies, capex vs. opex, and the difficulties and cost of building out a reliable, sustainable hosting operation that handles all the compliance and security requirements, and the full range of “ilities” that real busin…
Most corporations past a certain point have in-house counsel because it would be ruinous to pay Big Law for every little thing. That's not a narrow legal perspective, it's one look at a very obvious balance sheet. The same could go for hosting.
Your legal department does not replace your retained lawyers, they add to it. It’s separate roles.
Re: Oxide Computer raises $445M (SEC Form D)
#108Earlier quoted context omitted.
Logical. They probably will be aquihired by someone like Broadcom.
Is there anything they're doing that can't be replicated by hypervisor/management software on commodity x86 servers? Seems like their "secret sauce" is a software stack that "just works" more than any actual special feature of the hardware . I feel like Broadcom with its VMWare acquisition could easily take these guys out if they wanted to (or for that matter, any OEM that has a line of servers + network & storage ha…
Good question. Can’t eliminate the BIOS/UEFI on commodity systems. Can’t remove/cut down the BMC. Can’t plumb the hardware root of trust into the OS and VMs. Can’t do dynamic rack-level power capping (future roadmap). There’s a whole bunch of the software stack that only works because the hardware and software were designed together.
Oxide exists in part because commodity systems don’t work for building a cloud at scale (Joyent). Similarly, AWS, GCP, and Azure don’t use commodity systems, they use hardware that was designed to work together with their software, Nitro being a prime example.
Re: Oxide Computer raises $445M (SEC Form D)
#109(VP of Eng here) I filled out their sales form last year and never heard from them. We're currently spending $900k/year on AWS, and they didn't even acknowledge my request. crazy stuff.
They work with HFT/quant firms. Look at some of their former engineers who are now at matX. Intel/Barefoot Tofino 2, VHDL/SystemVerilog, FPGA, QSFP28 (100GbE networking), P4 programming. Their buyers don’t have customer stories. They don’t sell to SaaS companies.
I also think they work with government customers. I saw an open job position on their website requiring TS/SCI security clearance and full scope polygraph.
Re: Oxide Computer raises $445M (SEC Form D)
#110Earlier quoted context omitted.
Most corporations past a certain point have in-house counsel because it would be ruinous to pay Big Law for every little thing. That's not a narrow legal perspective, it's one look at a very obvious balance sheet. The same could go for hosting.
Your legal department does not replace your retained lawyers, they add to it. It’s separate roles.
Sure, just like CDN or rarely-used excess capacity could be separate roles to the bulk of your compute.
If you're racking up 750/hr putting big law on routine corporate tasks then you are probably messing up. Hire an admin.