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The Cloud Computer

oxide.computer

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Re: The Cloud Computer

#231

Post by EvanAnderson »

growse wrote: post #220
ollybee wrote: post #208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Existing vendors will provide rack integration services and deliver a turn key solution like this. Also vendors of virtualization management software have partnerships with hardware suppliers and be happy to deliver fully integrated solutions if you're buying by the rack. The difference is in those cases you have flexibility in the design which seems to be missing here. Proxmox and a full rack of Supermicro gear woul…

Those of us who've bought large "turn-key" solutions from Dell etc. have often discovered that it's actually just a cobbled-together bunch of things which may or may not work well together on a good day, depending on what you're trying to do. Just because it's all got the word "Dell" written on it, doesn't mean that the components were all engineered by people who were working together to build a single working syste…

Total agreement. Another point: Having the "Dell" name on the front doesn't give you a "throat to choke" as so many people seem to think is important. Unless you're very large scale then, at best, you can threaten them that they don't get your next business. You're certainly not going to get help.

You're no worse-off with Oxide from that perspective. Their open source firmware means that thr opportunity to pay somebody else to support you at least exists.

Re: The Cloud Computer

#232

Post by count »

steve1977 wrote: post #95
thom wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are many “you”s in most enterprises. If your platform engineering team builds their own cloud, and offers an experience similar to other cloud providers (or even better and more targeted), this could be a clear win.

You = the enterprise The definition of cloud is “out there in the sky - not here”

At least in the United States we have an official definition of cloud computing: https://csrc.nist.gov/pubs/sp/800/145/final

and that isn't it...

Re: The Cloud Computer

#233

Post by carbotaniuman »

lopkeny12ko wrote: post #227

> We’re really excited to have the first commercial cloud computer — and for it to be generally available! If you yourself are interested, we look forward to it making its first impression on you — reach out to us! Can we please stop with the "the only way to get our pricing is by booking a sales call with us." This is a 100% surefire way for me to never pay for your product, and instead go to competitors who provide…

Their entire point is to be different then that - if you want servers just go to HPE and spec out some servers. (Which really does beyond small scale, but at the rack level it's unheard of)

Re: The Cloud Computer

#234

Post by ale42 »

silverlake wrote: post #212
fefe23 wrote: post #11

This is actually a pretty big deal. They sell servers, but as a finished product. Not as a cobbled together mess of third party stuff where the vendor keeps shrugging if there is an integration problem. They integrated it. It comes with all the features they expect you to want if you wanted to build your own cloud. Also, they wrote the software. And it's all open source. So no "sorry but the third party vendor droppe…

How is this different from AWS Outpost?

I guess Outpost is not open source?

Re: The Cloud Computer

#235

Post by wuliwong »

tock wrote: post #126
dewey wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This really is one of these things where every employee in a cheap cost of living area will say "Exactly, man!" and people in an expensive area will see it differently because it might cap them lower than what they could get. I always find that a very naive point of view, of course I would want to earn a US tech salary while living somewhere in the country side, who wouldn't. But I'm also aware that this is not how t…

It's just crab mentality unfortunately.

Hmmm...I actually had to look up what crab mentality meant but I don't see how it applies here. From my quick lookup, crab mentality apparently refers to a reactionary state of mind where a person wants to sabotage another's success even when it doesn't directly impact their own.

In the case of everyone making the same salary, you could certainly still sabotage someone's success but I don't see how having the same salary makes this type of mentality _more_ likely than at a company with a more typical salary distribution.

My concern with everyone having the same salaries is that, potentially, employees have less motivation to excel in their individual work and are more likely to do the minimum to just stay in good standing with their employer and not get fired. Maybe a company can offset the lack of direct financial motivation with more of a team motivation that the financial success of the company as a whole results in financial reward for the individual or some other way of recognizing individual success inside the company.

I am doubtful this flat salary structure will result in a more successful company overall but I do think it's good to try new things. And yes this has probably been tried a number of times before but maybe not exactly like this. Or maybe some other external variables have changed w.r.t. other attempts in the past and this time it works. The typical salary structures we see in US companies today are the result of a large number of trials and errors and learning.

Re: The Cloud Computer

#236

Post by mst »

vidarh wrote: post #100
steve1977 wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you are building your own cloud infrastructure, you're not doing cloud computing. Unless you rent it out and are a cloud provider , but the website at least does not seem to target those.

"Private cloud" has been a term for at least a decade to refer to situations where people are building their own cloud infrastructure to provide a "cloud feature set" even though the servers are self hosted. You may not like it, but it's been a long time since "cloud" has exclusively referred to "someone in another organisation entirely runs the computers" as opposed to virtualised allocation of resources.

"Private cloud" as a term still kinda makes me itch, but I don't recall encountering an alternative that was more obvious and it's clearly the usual term of art at this point.

I suspect that while I do appreciate how some posters upthread find the website a tad on the vague side, the target customers-in-potentia will understand it fine.

Re: The Cloud Computer

#237

Post by ninkendo »

growse wrote: post #77
steve1977 wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you are building your own cloud infrastructure, you're not doing cloud computing. Unless you rent it out and are a cloud provider , but the website at least does not seem to target those.

Nonsense. The operative bit of "cloud" is "provision and de-provision instantly via an API, without much concern for what's going on inderneath", not "lives in someone else's datacenter".

> provision and de-provision instantly via an API

But that is literally not possible with hardware you purchase yourself.

Sure, you can buy X amount of hardware, and provision up to X amount of virtual hardware via an API, but then what? You can't provision any more until you go and buy more hardware. This is why "cloud, but local" is a contradiction IMO. You can only be "cloud-like" if you're under-provisioning. The moment you want to actually use all of the capacity you already paid for, you're not a cloud any more, because you've provisioned all of it.

No elasticity, no cloud.

Re: The Cloud Computer

#238

Post by paxys »

alberth wrote: post #219

> "Today we are announcing the general availability of the WORLD'S FIRST commercial cloud computer" (emphasis mine) I'm having a hard time getting past the first sentence of this blog post. Maybe I'm missing the obvious.

Just marketing fluff. It's a rack mounted server. Nothing "world's first" about it.

Re: The Cloud Computer

#239

Post by ollybee »

civilitty wrote: post #228
ollybee wrote: post #208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Existing vendors will provide rack integration services and deliver a turn key solution like this. Also vendors of virtualization management software have partnerships with hardware suppliers and be happy to deliver fully integrated solutions if you're buying by the rack. The difference is in those cases you have flexibility in the design which seems to be missing here. Proxmox and a full rack of Supermicro gear woul…

Classic hacker news! https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9224

It's a fair point! I would certainly trust the opinion of Bryan Cantrill over my own as well.

Re: The Cloud Computer

#240

Post by kristianpaul »

fefe23 wrote: post #11

This is actually a pretty big deal. They sell servers, but as a finished product. Not as a cobbled together mess of third party stuff where the vendor keeps shrugging if there is an integration problem. They integrated it. It comes with all the features they expect you to want if you wanted to build your own cloud. Also, they wrote the software. And it's all open source. So no "sorry but the third party vendor droppe…

This is a turn-key solution, ready to use without eventually dealing with multiple devices with its own firmware and caveats revealing after where put to work together. The closest to that is that AWS managed rack that works with the web APIS you know already
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