[badloginagain]

The article has some really good points why being in the cloud is a good idea. GitLabs core competencies are in software, not hardware- similar to many startups. Sure, they could hire up an infrastructure team, but that's at an opportunity cost of their software team.

The cloud offers convenience that all the `original internet companies` wish they had when they were starting out. There may be value in switching when you hit a certain scale, companies like Netflix will have already done cost-benefit analysis to that degree. But it's a massive undertaking that introduces substantial risk for long periods of time. Many companies are just not in a position to do that.

[synicalx]

I think their recent cock up is a great example of why they need an ops team regardless of whether or not they're in the cloud.

[stephenr]

> Sure, they could hire up an infrastructure team

Their original proposal on bare metal was for 64 servers. They need an ops team regardless of whether they control the hardware or not.