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The Cloud Computer

oxide.computer

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Re: The Cloud Computer

#741

Post by steveklabnik »

zmmmmm wrote: post #722

What's the interface point by which I can utilise this "cloud" - is it providing an AWS like API, is it something standard I can tap into so I'm not "locked" into this just as much as I am my cloud vendor? Or is it all in on Kubernetes and I have to use that?

There is an API, on which we have also built a console, so you can use the API directly, use various CLI clients we've provided, or the console. Or you can sling JSON via curl, if you prefer.

If you want kubernetes, you'd run it yourself on top of what we offer, think EC2, conceptually.

Here's our API docs if you'd like to check them out: https://docs.oxide.computer/api/disk_list

Re: The Cloud Computer

#742

Post by SamuelAdams »

yjftsjthsd-h wrote: post #433
bigironcto wrote: post #258

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thank you for the response. The problem you described has been solved by the large vendors with Hyper-converged offerings for many years so it sounds like Oxide might be a bit late to the party. I do understand well the rational of running your own servers vs hyperscalers, as well as the repatriation trend but I see Oxide at best as a niche player.

> The problem you described has been solved by the large vendors with Hyper-converged offerings for many years All Oxide has to do to win that market is ship software and firmware that doesn't suck, because there are incumbents but the incumbents are clearly incapable of doing so.

It’s a bit like Apple entering the Bluetooth headphone market. Tons of players, but they all suck for a variety of reasons. Apple announced the AirPods, which pair extremely well with your phone, and they really don’t suck.

Re: The Cloud Computer

#743

Post by xp84 »

goldinfra wrote: post #403
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 (ser…

> will probably never be ideal for more savvy customers

IDK about every use case, but slightly older generations of CPUs would affect me roughly zero. I'm sure there are things so compute-intensive that one would care very much, but a lot of people probably wouldn't bat an eye about that, and not because they're unsavvy.

To the extent that these things are supported as a whole by the vendor rather than a bunch of finger pointing though, that could be massive, specifically in terms of how many staff members you could "not hire" compared to if you had to employ someone to both build and continually maintain it.

I'm posting this not to invalidate what you're saying, just to say that a little predictable upfront amount of money (the premium) will be spent very happily by lots of people who value predictability and TCO over initial price.

Re: The Cloud Computer

#745

Post by jrexilius »

wmat wrote: post #538

What am I missing here? Hasn't SoftIron been building this exact thing for around 5 years? Heck, they design and manufacture all of the hardware as well. https://softiron.com/hypercloud/ https://softiron.com/blog/run-bmc-why-we-decided-to-build-ou...

Thanks for pointing this out! I wasn't aware of SoftIron. I think its a big deal that there are two vendors on this path. And both seem to be doing it the right way. I think it makes the whole, stronger than the sum.

Re: The Cloud Computer

#746

Post by punkspider »

TaylorAlexander wrote: post #661

I have to say, as someone who will never buy one of these, I just want to see pictures of all the cool features they are talking about. And yet, their website seems strangely devoid of product photos! Or I have been unable to find them. I worked photojournalism in university, and it really strikes me when people talk about how cool their novel interconnect is and how clean the design is, but their long writeup doesn'…

I feel the same. I'm also amazed at how much traction this is getting and I'm skimming through the comments to understand why this is so important. Pics would have helped.

Re: The Cloud Computer

#747

Post by cashsterling »

PaulWaldman wrote: post #508
cashsterling wrote: post #442

I've been following Oxide since they formed and I really hope they crush it. Semi-sort-of related... there was an automation company, Bedrock automation, that went defunct about a year ago. Their PLC hardware ideas were dope but I always felt like they were missing the boat a little bit by supporting stale PLC programming languages. I used to wonder if supporting Rust and Ada on these PLC's would be been a good idea…

The industrial automation industry is highly risk adverse. In some systems, like safety, this mentality is justified without proper migration plans. In other areas, it's alarming, like choosing to run a system on hardware that has been out of support for 30+ years without adequate spare parts. Operation/Shop floor technologies (OT) are treated like mechanical equipment, "When it fails, we'll swap it out for a new one…

I agree with everything you said... but there are a lot of areas in control system engineering that would benefit from having really robust hardware designs coupled with guaranteed correctness that Rust/Ada provide, and then all of the upside of all of the advanced control programming that is relatively easy in a modern programming language.

Beckhoff & B&R Automation are part of the way there. They both have some really slick portfolios. IMO, on paper, these are the two most advanced control system companies (with large sales volume).

Re: The Cloud Computer

#748

Post by [deleted] »

willglynn wrote: post #650
electroly wrote: post #454

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's mostly not true that you still pay for resource usage on top of the Outpost unit. That's only true, AFAIK, for EBS local snapshots and Route 53 Resolver endpoints. The big boys--EC2 instances, S3 storage, and EBS volumes--are all "free" on Outposts. That is, included in the cost of the unit and not double-charged. Charging for EBS local snapshots on your own Outpost S3 storage and Route 53 Resolvers on your own…

AWS Outposts are leased: > You can purchase Outposts servers capacity for a three-year term and choose between three payment options: All Upfront, Partial Upfront, and No Upfront. … At the end of your Outposts servers term, you can either renew your subscription and keep your Outposts server(s), or return your Outposts server(s). If you do not notify AWS of your selection before the end of your term, your Outposts se…

[deleted]

Re: The Cloud Computer

#749

Post by SamuelAdams »

cryptonector wrote: post #459
bigironcto wrote: post #241

I am CTO of a large global data center provider posting with throwaway account. As a technologist, I really appreciate what they have done. Impressive work, high quality, however I don't understand who this is for. The meaningful market for Data Center hardware is pretty well defined in two clusters. People that build/make custom gear (such as Hyperscalers) and people that buys HP/Cisco/IBM/Dell... (blades or hyper-c…

Bryan Cantrill is famously against vendor lock-in. He wrote a[n in]famous blog about the "FYO point" while at Sun. Oxide may be going for customers that also have the same aversion to vendor lock-in. One thing that Bryan understands is that you can "lock" the customer in with great products and services, as well as continuing development, while also making the customer feel secure in having a way out should you turn…

> How big is the market of sufficiently-vendor-lock-in-averse customers?

Very. Just look at the USA defense spending budget. If you’ve ever worked on AWS-govcloud or secret, you know there’s a market here.

This has huge use for military too. Imagine having a black site or off-grid location but still needing a rack of things. What if you could spin up an entire enterprise infrastructure by just loading up this rack?

If this team manages to get this thing government certified, there’s a lot of profit to be had.

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