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The Cloud Computer

oxide.computer

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Re: The Cloud Computer

#731

Post by aeyes »

qaq wrote: post #573
aeyes wrote: post #431

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe something like Dell VXBlock didn't exist when they pitched their idea? Any hardware contracts are very long term and you'll have a hard time getting me to switch to a different vendor, especially when they also want to come in with an unknown operating system which I have to run.

I guess time will tell VXBlock just looks like amalgamation of SKUs Dell has. Oxide was built as "clean slate" from firmware to every minute detail to offer a compelling product for companies that want to have a hyperscaler style systems for their on-prem workloads.

Is it now bad to have a few offerings that you can tailor to your needs?

With compute one size doesn't fit all, maybe you need more disk space or maybe you need GPUs... I'm sure Oxide will come out with different spec modules over time.

The idea is similar: It's a rack which runs virtualized workloads and you don't have to think much about individual machines.

Re: The Cloud Computer

#732

Post by steveklabnik »

choppaface wrote: post #718
Animats wrote: post #706

"Everyone at Oxide makes $201,227 USD, regardless of location."[1] Do they actually assemble and build their own racks of hardware, or is that outsourced? Somewhere, there must be an assembly plant. If this stuff actually exists. It's hard to even find pictures of their products. Do they have production installations? [1] https://oxide.computer/careers

That comp number is apparently as-of 2021 and it was explained in a post by the CTO https://oxide.computer/blog/compensation-as-a-reflection-of-... Certainly odd but not out of the ordinary for a small Bay Area start-up where the Founders have a ton of cash and the focus is mostly on what they personally want to do. Posts like these are b/c the Founders want to hire 1-3 people who fit exactly into alignment with them…

That number was just updated, it was less in 2021.

We’re about 60 people, currently.

Re: The Cloud Computer

#733

Post by numpad0 »

cryptonector wrote: post #446
throw0101a wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> They sell servers, but as a finished product. They sell rack-as-compute.[0] Their minimum order is one rack: You plug in power and network, connect to the built-in management software (API), and start spinning up VMs. [0] With built-in networking and storage.

It would be interesting to sell a data center in a container. Cooling, power supply, compute, storage, and network, all in a box. You supply power, a big network pipe, and the piping to external heat exchangers.

There are whitebox Windows laptops, OpenWRT routers, Arduino boards, ArduPilot drones, etc. It almost sounds strange that there are no prepopulated 12U racks intended for OpenStack(is that still a thing?)

Re: The Cloud Computer

#734

Post by monocasa »

la64710 wrote: post #720
monocasa wrote: post #281

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's meant for orgs running at a certain scale, but you'd be surprised how early that starts making sense. AWS isn't exactly paying the economy of scale savings on to you.

True but at for companies operating at scale they not only operate on AWS but on other cloud providers as well as legacy data centers … but business wise it’s a hard sell , it may sell for couple of cycles to build a new dc or use an existing ones but then it will be back to the cloud again for many more cycles.

I've found that the scale these start making sense is only a handful of racks. We're not talking full DCs, but a room in a building or some colo space.

And beyond that, there's all sorts of weird environments that need a lot of local compute. You'd be shocked how many servers are on a cruise ship for one example among many.

Re: The Cloud Computer

#735

Post by LTL_FTC »

I really like the company name! It's like hexadecimal notation with IDE!

It's high time the datacenter takes a more holistic approach. For years I have been thinking that it's silly to stick a bunch of tiny fans in individual servers when one large impeller pulling air from an inclosed rack would be more efficient. Imagine large fans with ducts that come down to each rack or row of racks. Current in == current out; so a large diameter fan (5 feet) coupling down to small hose (10 inch) means the air moving through the small end will be really moving fast through those components!

Re: The Cloud Computer

#736

Post by azinman2 »

dewey wrote: post #561
azinman2 wrote: post #548

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> of course I would want to earn a US tech salary while living somewhere in the country side, who wouldn't I wouldn’t. I like cities and center of culture and human activity. And the stats generally show cities growing globally, so I’m not the only one.

Replace "somewhere in the country side" with "some other place where the cost of living is lower than the highest one in the country" if it makes you happier.

The same argument applies. Places with high costs of living are high because they’re desirable. There are no cheap cities I’d want to live in.

Re: The Cloud Computer

#737

Post by steveklabnik »

burnte wrote: post #588
steveklabnik wrote: post #476

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just to be clear, Illumos (it hasn't been Solaris in a very long time) is an implementation detail. It's not customer facing.

> Just to be clear, Illumos (it hasn't been Solaris in a very long time) is an implementation detail. It's not customer facing. Solaris is still Solaris, as of the latest release last month. OpenSolaris hasn't been OpenSolaris in a while and is Illumos, yes.

Yes, thanks. I didn't even realize my comment could be read that way, but I was speaking of Illumos only, Solaris is still Solaris :)

Re: The Cloud Computer

#738

Post by steveklabnik »

zemo wrote: post #728

their whole "AWS is bad because THEY are engaging in rentier capitalism, we are good because we sell you the tools to let YOU engage in rentier capitalism" shtick rings empty to me

I don't know what is rentier capitalism about owning compute that your organization uses? Could you walk me through that?

Re: The Cloud Computer

#739

Post by steveklabnik »

LarsDu88 wrote: post #724

Didn't Sun Microsystems used to do this? Sell servers in shipping crates? Didn't that still come with the weeks of overhead that compelled people to adopt cloud in the first place?

Sun certainly sold computers, yes.

I'm not sure what "weeks of overhead" you're referring to, specifically, as it could mean a few different things. Happy to elaborate if you will :)

Re: The Cloud Computer

#740

Post by romanhn »

dfc wrote: post #730
sbarre wrote: post #523

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Part of the problem here is that the people who make the purchasing decisions (like this CTO guy) don't care about "the experience" because they're not the ones unpacking boxes and plugging in cables. They pay other people to do that and they don't really care if it's a miserable time. And if it takes days instead of hours, who cares? Rarely is someone setting up a data center under the gun (unless you're Elmo and we…

Who is Elmo?

Elon Musk
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