Why doesn't dropbox just use AWS?
They did, but I imagine it was really expensive vs building their own stuff at that scale. Plus they probably don't want to be reliant on a competitor in many ways.
Dropbox traffic infrastructure: Edge network
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Re: Dropbox traffic infrastructure: Edge network
#22TIL about https://github-debug.com/ and https://www.fastly-debug.com/ and https://dropbox-debug.com/ - neat pattern.
Re: Dropbox traffic infrastructure: Edge network
#23Why doesn't dropbox just use AWS?
They were using AWS. They have moved off of it within the last couple years because they now have the scale where it makes financial sense to build their own infrastructure and also to provide a better, faster service. They've had improved read/write + sync speeds since switching over to their own infrastructure. Having those checkboxes in a table showing that you have the fastest cloud storage works really well in B2B, which has been a big focus for them recently.
Re: Dropbox traffic infrastructure: Edge network
#24Would be great to know how exactly they store all the customer data on this edge network. Is it encrypted with a customer-specific key? If yes, when and how do they decrypt it?
Probably not. You can reset your password without losing your content.
Re: Dropbox traffic infrastructure: Edge network
#25I'm surprised there is no mention of security or privacy. I'd have thought that's one of the reasons for controlling your own edge network.
If I had to guess the people who wrote this are just assuming tls on top.
That's an interesting implication. If they distribute the same cert so widely geographically, any host country could technically request it for "lawful intercepts".
Re: Dropbox traffic infrastructure: Edge network
#26Re: Dropbox traffic infrastructure: Edge network
#27Why doesn't dropbox just use AWS?
Early edge network was indeed prototyped in AWS: a simple setup with ELB in tcp mode, nginx and proxy_protocol.
Once we've got all data from that experiment: performance, cost, and flexibility included, we've decided to start building our own PoPs.
Re: Dropbox traffic infrastructure: Edge network
#28> DNS TTL is a lie. Even though we have TTL of one minute for www.dropbox.com, it still takes 15 minutes to drain 90% of traffic, and it may take a full hour to drain 95% of traffic. Interesting, awhile back both Google and AWS engineers replied to a HN thread[1] saying TTL of 30 seconds or so works pretty responsibly and can be trusted and used. Seems to be some disagreement on this. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com…
It really depends on the clients, here is an excerpt from the article:
> Here we also need to mention the myriad embedded devices using Dropbox API that range from video cameras to smart fridges which have a tendency of resolving DNS addresses only during power-on.
Re: Dropbox traffic infrastructure: Edge network
#29Who would have thought a simple FTP-on-some-server would have been so complicated. Thanks for the post! I'm eagerly waiting for the blog post about how bazel and torrents are used.
This has to be HN at its worst. Reducing a complicated file sharing and collaboration tool to an insecure and highly technical protocol.
Dropbox: I can upload a file super easily and share a simple & secure link with someone who just has a web browser.
FTP: I can upload a file to an FTP server I've either configured on my server or rented online. I'll then provide an FTP url to friend with instructions on how they should login and what FTP client they should use on their chosen device.
EDIT: This could be sarcasm, if I didn't pick up on then feel free to downvote me to hell.
EDIT 2: Thanks to the comments, this is sarcasm. I messed up. Sorry rakoo.
Re: Dropbox traffic infrastructure: Edge network
#30TIL about https://github-debug.com/ and https://www.fastly-debug.com/ and https://dropbox-debug.com/ - neat pattern.
Good find, I like this pattern. I could see a niche startup or open source solution providing this as a service, similar to statuspage (acquired by atlassian). It could also help keep the layout consistent, for user familiarity.