[Spivak]

> A properly setup server, with caching and a backend ...

Which needs a dedicated sysadmin/ops person to maintain and the cost of finding, acquiring, training, and paying their salary and benefits is less than just outsourcing it to AWS.

[tjpnz]

Even if you outsource everything to AWS you're still going to find yourself needing such a person.

[pikzen]

A single m4.16xlarge on AWS is at the very least $2200 per month. That doesn't even include storage costs. Depending on your country, that definitely pays for an already trained sysadmin. Also, some stuff just cannot be put onto AWS. I worked with financial, medical data, it just doesn't go on AWS. Especially since the datacenters are very likely not in your country.