DHH

We worked very hard to understand our bill, like how to proportion it and what is that application spending. That was tens of hours a month. trying to understand the bill.

We worked very hard to understand our bill, like how to proportion it and what is that application spending. That was tens of hours a month. trying to understand the bill.

It comes up all the time. That's crazy. And after we bought our own servers, yeah, that

It comes up all the time. That's crazy. And after we bought our own servers, yeah, that

went away. Like there was just a whole category of work that just disappeared. We did one big analysis when we bought all the servers we needed to get out of the cloud for whatever. And it was like, I don't know, five, $600,000, not an insignificant sum, but like our cloud budget was 3.2 million. So like proportionally not that big of a deal. Anyway, we do that analysis once.

went away. Like there was just a whole category of work that just disappeared. We did one big analysis when we bought all the servers we needed to get out of the cloud for whatever. And it was like, I don't know, five, $600,000, not an insignificant sum, but like our cloud budget was 3.2 million. So like proportionally not that big of a deal. Anyway, we do that analysis once.

And then we're like, all right, see you in five years. That's the next time I'm going to worry about whether I need an AMD EPYC 9454 or a 9754. Like, yeah, I don't need to do this every day, right? With the cloud, you kind of sort of do. Because if you don't, it is so easy for these things to run away from you.

And then we're like, all right, see you in five years. That's the next time I'm going to worry about whether I need an AMD EPYC 9454 or a 9754. Like, yeah, I don't need to do this every day, right? With the cloud, you kind of sort of do. Because if you don't, it is so easy for these things to run away from you.

The $3.2 million we had on our cloud budget really should have been twice that at least. It would have been if we hadn't been Nazis about chasing down the last penny and stopping all the right services and doing all the optimizations and entering long-term contracts. It's the other thing that blows my mind. People have this conception, oh, the cloud is like just metered as you go.

The $3.2 million we had on our cloud budget really should have been twice that at least. It would have been if we hadn't been Nazis about chasing down the last penny and stopping all the right services and doing all the optimizations and entering long-term contracts. It's the other thing that blows my mind. People have this conception, oh, the cloud is like just metered as you go.

Yeah, no, it isn't. No one actually using the cloud at scale is paying like per the minute. They are entering into at least one-year contracts on committed contracts instances, because that's the only way to get any pricing that makes any kind of sense. On AWS's S3 service, we were in a four-year fucking contract. Four years we committed to get any pricing that kind of sort of made sense.

Yeah, no, it isn't. No one actually using the cloud at scale is paying like per the minute. They are entering into at least one-year contracts on committed contracts instances, because that's the only way to get any pricing that makes any kind of sense. On AWS's S3 service, we were in a four-year fucking contract. Four years we committed to get any pricing that kind of sort of made sense.

There's a lot of contradictions in all this stuff. Again, different businesses are different in different ways. And I'm not saying there's one size that fits all here. I think there is an opening, though, for us to reconsider what the default should be when you should start doing the calculations. And also, if you do know Linux a little bit, the alternatives won't seem as...

There's a lot of contradictions in all this stuff. Again, different businesses are different in different ways. And I'm not saying there's one size that fits all here. I think there is an opening, though, for us to reconsider what the default should be when you should start doing the calculations. And also, if you do know Linux a little bit, the alternatives won't seem as...

foreign or as inconceivable as I think they do to some companies, right? Who have grown up in a cloud-first world and have a team that's familiar with instantiating new AWS services. And then they go like, what do you mean? Ethernet?

foreign or as inconceivable as I think they do to some companies, right? Who have grown up in a cloud-first world and have a team that's familiar with instantiating new AWS services. And then they go like, what do you mean? Ethernet?

And I don't think that's what most people are doing.

And I don't think that's what most people are doing.

I don't think that's what most people are doing. Most businesses are doing. They're not doing it from like, hey, I know how this works if we're going to run it ourselves. I know how it works in the cloud and I can make the math work or I can make the economics work. That is not what I'm seeing broadly, and I think that's a shame, and I think, again, we can fix it.

I don't think that's what most people are doing. Most businesses are doing. They're not doing it from like, hey, I know how this works if we're going to run it ourselves. I know how it works in the cloud and I can make the math work or I can make the economics work. That is not what I'm seeing broadly, and I think that's a shame, and I think, again, we can fix it.