The Cloud Computer • Hacker News Board

Re: The Cloud Computer

#271

Post by csomar » Thu, Oct 26, 2023, 2:14 PM UTC

TrueDuality wrote: post #85

I'd like to add that their open source code is also EXTREMELY high quality. If you're an embedded developer go take a look at Hubris and Humility. I ended up using those to GREAT effect for this custom one-off aerospace device and it was a fantastic experience to integrate with. Definitely a change from what I was used to that took a bit of getting used to.

I agree. I stole some of their stuff from here https://github.com/oxidecomputer/third-party-api-clients/tre... when I needed a SendGrid integration. High quality code and proper use of Rust types.

Re: The Cloud Computer

#272

Post by foobiekr » Thu, Oct 26, 2023, 2:14 PM UTC

ollybee wrote: post #208

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…

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…

Also future datacenter builds are going to be focusing on specific applications which means specific builds. I think Nvidia has a much better chance here with their superpod than Oxide. The target use case is pretty unclear.

On-prem buyers are doing cost reduction and cost reduction targets things like, as one example, the crazy cost of GPU servers on the CSPs. Your run of the mill stuff is very hard to cost reduce.

You can see their sort of lack of getting it by using Tofino2 as their switch. That’s just a very bad choice that was almost certainly chosen for bad reasons.

Re: The Cloud Computer

#273

Post by la64710 » Thu, Oct 26, 2023, 2:14 PM UTC

ollybee wrote: post #208

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…

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…

AWS outposts have been there in the market for a long time .. though I am sure there are differences but to say extisting cloud vendors were blind to on prem requirements is a stretch.

Re: The Cloud Computer

#274

Post by breatheoften » Thu, Oct 26, 2023, 2:15 PM UTC

I discovered their podcast a month ago and binged through the backlog -- it's one of the best technology podcasts of all time! Really like the way these folks think and communicate!

Re: The Cloud Computer

#275

Post by ninkendo » Thu, Oct 26, 2023, 2:16 PM UTC

vidarh wrote: post #110

steve1977 wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s called cloud because it’s not in your own data center. Usually cloud symbols were used in network diagrams to depict systems/networks outside of our concern. Also you could don’t really get elasticity with a system like this. If anything, that would be the operative bit for me.

That was the case ~15+ years ago. Private cloud has been a term for the majority of that time to evoke the elasticity and virtualisation without the "not in your own data center" bit, because to most users of a cloud the operative bit is that they don't have to worry about where the computer is or talk to someone to provision one, not whether it sits in the corporate data centre or off at Amazon. Hybrid clouds even m…

> "You" as in "the organisation as a whole" don't get elasticity. "You" as in "your department" or "you as an individual" do get elasticity.

Right, but to the degree that you get elasticity, it starts to look more and more like "someone else's computer", no? If multiple people/departments/etc are provisioning virtual instances on one shared cloud infra, with nobody who's using the provisioning API caring about the underlying capacity (and capacity is planned indirectly by forecasting, etc), then it really starts to sound like "someone else's computer" to me. That "someone else" just happens to be another org within the same company.

Re: The Cloud Computer

#276

Post by loeg » Thu, Oct 26, 2023, 2:16 PM UTC

weystrom wrote: post #16

> Everyone at Oxide makes $201,227 USD, regardless of location. Man I would love to work for a company like that. I don't know why more people don't set their startups like that.

Well, it's an immediate stumbling block to hiring anyone currently making more than that, such as senior engineers in the US.

Re: The Cloud Computer

#277

Post by dilippkumar » Thu, Oct 26, 2023, 2:16 PM UTC

As a long time follower from the first "On the metal" podcast and as someone who has been cheering for you silently from the sidelines - Congratulations!

You all have arrived. Wishing you decades of prosperity and good fortune.

Re: The Cloud Computer

#278

Post by flumpcakes » Thu, Oct 26, 2023, 2:17 PM UTC

I think a lot of commenters here have little experience with hyper-converged infrastructure if they don't see this is different. This looks, by far, the simplest way to run workloads outside of the big cloud providers (AWS, Azure, GCP).

It seems they only support up to virtual machines but this is still miles ahead of VMWare, Nutanix, or CISCO ACI to my eyes. This honestly looks simple enough that a developer/DevOps team could manage it. With the other 'hyperconverged' infrastructure offerings you will still need a dedicated team of trained ops professionals to manage it.

Re: The Cloud Computer

#279

Post by la64710 » Thu, Oct 26, 2023, 2:19 PM UTC

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…

On site backup inventory

DC build out cost and effort

Power cooling requirements

Dark fiber bandwidth requirement

New headcount to support all this

No thanks , I have widgets to make and sell and a business to run.

Re: The Cloud Computer

#280

Post by a_imho » Thu, Oct 26, 2023, 2:20 PM UTC

dewey wrote: post #79

keepamovin wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly, man! That's the way it should be done. It's not a company's business to decide how much your life should cost. It's its business to reward you for the value you provide, and that value is not tethered to your location, so neither should be your salary!

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…

Assuming interchangeable human resources there are basically 2 options, either the company is extracting more value from everyone than the salaries they pay, in that case paying fairly would eat into the company's bottom line. Poor CXOs would not turn extra profits by keeping less fortunate employees on low salaries but just the regular one. Or the highest paid employees are not pulling their weight and their salaries are already subsidized by the rest of the company, which is also not quite fair.

Nevertheless, I agree everyone looks at this problem from their own POV, however it should not be the norm to provide equal compensation for equal work.