[Scirra_Tom]

We're moving to AWS for our next release, managed by Rackspace. Had the same philosophy as you for years, and have saved a lot of money with DIY (maybe in the tens of thousands).

Turns out server admin is not my skillset, and it's caused problems, headaches and risks in the past.

I consider the additional cost going forwards in effect as our next hire and an important one. For small startups looking to save money DIY can be a good option, but moving onto the cloud at a later date can be a big burden.

[imaginenore]

You still need a server admin, cloud or not. It's not like there's a magic button in the cloud that replaces an admin.

[foxylad]

Appengine (and I believe Elastic Beanstalk) are those magic buttons. I've used Appengine for years, and have loved not having to worry about patching, OS upgrades, scaling or redundancy.

If you're a small shop, this lets you concentrate on your core product instead of your systems. And by "small shop", I really mean "pretty big shop" - you're going to be a globally significant player before your Appengine charges get near a sysadmin's salary.

[Scirra_Tom]

Yep, which is why we have Rackspace actively managing our cloud setup

[dexterdog]

A good cloud admin can manage far more in less time in the cloud

[bluedino]

I can't imagine Rackspace managing anything being a positive

[Scirra_Tom]

They seem great so far!

[jeffbarr]

Welcome aboard!

[Scirra_Tom]

Thanks!