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Fauna Service Winding Down

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Re: Fauna Service Winding Down

#51

Post by biker142541 »

RadiozRadioz wrote: post #8

Added to my list of troubles & worries I avoided because I didn't rely on a random external company for critical infrastructure.

Not super familiar with Fauna as a company... not sure "random" applies, but I generally think the same way. If a provider can offer something that adds real value over alternatives, though, it's not a bad decision to go external.

However, never rely on an external provider if there's not a low-risk offramp plan. Can I export all of my data and easily migrate, worst case scenario? Are there open source options using the same or similar formats/workflows/etc? Is the format itself proprietary or lock me in otherwise? Those sorts of questions need to be figured out fully before jumping aboard.

Re: Fauna Service Winding Down

#52

Post by pier25 »

arccy wrote: post #3
k__ wrote: post #2

I had the impression FaunaDB was quite hyped some years ago. What happened?

unless you have a really strong unique selling point, it's hard to sell a DB that's only available as a service and not runnable locally?

They used to provide a Docker image for local dev but that was it AFAIK.

Re: Fauna Service Winding Down

#53

Post by biker142541 »

PeterZaitsev wrote: post #20

This highlights the challenge of smaller proprietary SaaS offerings - they can shut down abruptly leaving you in the bind. It is great to see Fauna making a commitment to Open Source the project, which will be great option to have for their customers I wish they would have started with Open Source project to begin with, perhaps future would be different

I honestly don't understand the path of creating a fully proprietary SaaS these days if you cannot offer a fundamentally unique capability. Speed and scalability are conveniences more than a real business moat, I suspect.

Re: Fauna Service Winding Down

#55

Post by tysont »

picardo wrote: post #19

Someone told me FaunaDB the company had a strict "no one gets fired" policy. However, they also hired a few toxic people, and that created a dilemma for some folks because it was either leave or learn to tolerate toxicity.

I led the engineering team at Fauna and this is false - we had a performance culture and performance managed/exited people when they did not meet expectations. I've managed some outstanding teams/organizations at Microsoft, Amazon, and Riot Games and the team behind Fauna was world-class; on par with the best teams that I have seen or been a part of. There are plenty of reasons that the company didn't succeed, some in our control and some out of our control, but the caliber of people at the company and the company culture are not on that list.

Re: Fauna Service Winding Down

#56

Post by wadenick »

eigilsagafos wrote: post #50
anonzzzies wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are licensing it or? We would, especially after this type of thing, again, be looking for something open.

Would be open source for sure

I really think any help the community could offer - and also receive - would be welcome news for those still on Fauna service right now. Especially open source. People could move quickly – with multiple options – to help themselves, which after all is the only thing Fauna the co is able to offer anyway. Like the other commenter said, if you do release it open source please post on Hacker News and maybe Reddit and we'll all try to help boost it.

Re: Fauna Service Winding Down

#58

Post by wadenick »

tomhallett wrote: post #39
wadenick wrote: post #13

This is a very tough announcement for any customers relying on the Fauna service. The announcement itself hides the all key details, clicking into the FAQ reveals the date is not several months away but in fact 2 months 11 days away, and there is no FaunaDB open source release to start saving your own ass today . > we have made the hard decision to sunset the Fauna service over the next several months. clicks into th…

The word choice of “several” feels a bit mis-leading. Reminds me of the Big Bang Theory quote: That is not a lot of weeks. In fact, that's the bare minimum to get to the plural "weeks".

...agree, even spending time singing on anything else in the first paragraph instead of breaking the bad news WITH THE DATE first feels rather off.

Re: Fauna Service Winding Down

#59

Post by nine_k »

andrewinardeer wrote: post #31
picardo wrote: post #19

Someone told me FaunaDB the company had a strict "no one gets fired" policy. However, they also hired a few toxic people, and that created a dilemma for some folks because it was either leave or learn to tolerate toxicity.

Shutting down the whole business is the loop hole leadership found to skirt around this policy.

If they were making money hand over fist, they would likely just change the policy. Or at least if somebody would acquire them.

Apparently their VC investors were not seeing the hockey stick growth, so they decided to cut the losses. Taking VC money is a more risky bet than other forms of investment. If your business is profitable, but small and is growing 5-7% a year, and no acquisition is sight, most likely it's going to be shut down.

Re: Fauna Service Winding Down

#60

Post by Illniyar »

traceroute66 wrote: post #33
Illniyar wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google is the exception that proves the rule. Companies are fearful of using GCP exactly because of their terrible reputation of unreliability (and lack of even basic support). No one fears AWS or Azure is going to shut down services they rely on (even if it happens in some rare cases).

> AWS or Azure is going to shut down services they rely on If we give the benefit of the doubt to a quick internet search, e.g. AWS: S3 Select, CloudSearch, Cloud9, SimpleDB, Forecast, Data Pipeline, and CodeCommit. All closed to new business, closure pending for existing customers. I'm sure if you read the small print, neither AWS or Azure make you any promises about the longevity of their services. Infact, if you b…

No new customers is not shutting down services you rely on. It's the exact opposite. It's making sure things you rely on continue to work until you are ok leaving it.

And SimpleDB has been deprecated for years. I don't know think there's a single service you could have picked to better highlight the point.

AWS does close services, from time to time, all companies do, but the services they choose and the way they do it instill confidence in customers. The way GCP does it instills fear

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