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The Cloud Computer

oxide.computer

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Re: The Cloud Computer

#401

Post by brundolf »

candiddevmike wrote: post #319
qaq wrote: post #301

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They literally had CTOs of F100 companies that want to buy this gear as part of VCs pitch. Because as you can imagine your question was the first question VC's asked.

Purchasing a ton of hardware from a startup seems extremely risky for a F100. It's one thing to be left holding the bag when a SaaS startup goes under, but when you just spent millions on gear that is now completely unsupported... eek. I'd be curious to see what companies are interested, Oxide doesn't have any logos on their website which is a little odd given the space.

> completely unsupported

That equation changes with the entire software stack being open-source

Re: The Cloud Computer

#402

Post by steveklabnik »

sorenbs wrote: post #345
steveklabnik wrote: post #315

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Specs are here: https://oxide.computer/product/specifications Prices are here: https://oxide.computer/sales ;)

I know you are half joking, but it would really be helpful to have ball-park pricing available. Are we talking Sun-level markups here, or how should we think about it? Given the enterprise sales contact form, I'm thinking yes, but I'd love to know for sure.

> how should we think about it?

I am not in sales and so I hesitate to speak on it in case I am incorrect, but the way that I personally think about it is that it is true that it is not an inexpensive product: there's a LOT of computer here. But the goal is to be competitively priced.

Re: The Cloud Computer

#403

Post by goldinfra »

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…

Coupling vs Decoupling is not some one-sided thing. It's a major trade-off.

One of the most obvious examples of the problem with this approach is that they're shipping previous generation servers on Day 1. One can easily buy current generation AMD servers from a number of vendors.

They will also likely charge a significant premium over decoupled vendors that are forced to compete head-to-head for a specific role (server vendor, switch vendor, etc).

Their coupling approach will most likely leave them perpetually behind and more expensive.

But there are advantages too. Their stuff should be simpler to use and require less in-house expertise to operate well.

This is probably a reasonable trade-off for government agencies and the like, but will probably never be ideal for more savvy customers.

And I don't know how truly open source their work is but if it's truly open source, they'll most likely find themselves turned into a software company with an open core model. Other vendors that are already at scale can almost certainly assemble hardware better than they can.

Re: The Cloud Computer

#404

Post by lopkeny12ko »

layer8 wrote: post #299
rwmj wrote: post #290

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I still don't get why they can't put a price on the website.

It gives them more flexibility and reduces competition. It’s quite common in B2B, for products/services in that pricing range.

How in the world is reducing competition a good thing?

Re: The Cloud Computer

#405

Post by steve1977 »

repelsteeltje wrote: post #307
steve1977 wrote: post #289

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Wouldn't it be great to power down an idle server, knowing that it can be switched on seconds before you actually need it? considering you would still need to boot the VMs then, once the Oxide system is up, I’m not sure if this is such a big win. And at a certain scale you’d probably have something like multiple systems and VMware vMotion or alternatives anyway. So if the ESXi host (for example) takes a while to bo…

> considering you would still need to boot the VMs then, once the Oxide system is up, I’m not sure if this is such a big win. To be honoust, I'm using containers most of the time these days but even the full blown windows VMs I'm orchestrating boot in less than 20s, assuming the hypervisor is operational. I think that's about on par with public cloud, no? > [...] vMotion [...] ESXi. Is VMware still a thing? Started w…

Re VMware, it’s certainly still a thing in enterprise environments. Can kvm do things like live migration in the meantime? For me it’s the other way round, haven’t looked into that for a while ;)

How do you mean Oxide might have that advantage as well in the future? As I understand, you have to buy hardware from them?

Re: The Cloud Computer

#406

Post by steveklabnik »

gleb wrote: post #397
steveklabnik wrote: post #343

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am not trying to be dismissive, I was just explaining since there was some confusion.

I'll try to explain, not in the spirit of being argumentative, but with the hope of being useful. The comment you replied to was not questioning the value of integrated cabling. It was pointing out that the product description on the site does not make sense. "Cloud computer" sounds like a server you rent from AWS. It's kind of like calling Rust "cloud compiler." If you choose to use words that your audience doesn't…

I understand that's what you're saying, and I understand what the parent is saying. I chose to explain what that alluded to, in case anyone in this conversation is also finding it hard to understand what is meant by that specific copy. That doesn't mean I don't understand the broader point, or that I think the website copy is perfect.

Re: The Cloud Computer

#407

Post by macintux »

YorickPeterse wrote: post #366
paxys wrote: post #321

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No company wants to hire in expensive areas, but that's just where engineering talent is concentrated.

Ah yes, because good engineers can only be found in San Francisco and similarly expensive areas.

Hence the word "concentrated". Your snark seems misdirected.

I live in flyover country, and there are no shortage of talented people here, but I wouldn't dispute that the per-capita software developer talent in SF is going to be higher.

Re: The Cloud Computer

#408

Post by alberth »

The irony is that Oxide caters to the HN crowd, but the HN crowd would not be the buyer of their offerings.

Old school CIO's, who make enterprise decisions without developer support, are typically the buyer of hyper-converged infrastructure (or Utility companies who struggle with CapEx vs OpEd).

I wish them luck. There's a bunch really good folks over there.

Re: The Cloud Computer

#409

Post by mgkimsal »

steveklabnik wrote: post #329
mgkimsal wrote: post #88

I met a couple of their folks on site last week in Raleigh at the All Things Open conference. Saw a couple quick demos, and... it's not for me. But I can see the benefits, and many other folks stopping by the booth seemed to get the benefits as well. The folks at the booth were really nice too. Granted, that's sort of your job when being in a vendor booth at a conference, but it's surprising how often that's not the…

Thanks for stopping by! All Things Open is one of my favorite conferences, glad we were able to be there. And yeah it's totally chill: this product is not for everyone. No slight taken!

Nice to have been able to put a real life face to a name I've seen for so long!
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