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by orourkek 1641 days ago
> Taking badges out of the cloud reduces points of failure by several orders of magnitude.

I'm not convinced that's true, or at least certainly not an order of magnitude. Wouldn't a badge system hosted on-prem also need a user management system (database), a hosted management interface, have a dependency on the LAN, and need most of the same hardware? Such a system would also need to be running on a local server(s), which introduces points of failure around power continuity/surges, physical security, ongoing maintenance, etc.
2 comments
reaperducer 1641 days ago
All of those things would also be needed by the cloud provider, too. Just because it's on-prem doesn't mean it doesn't need servers, power conditioning, physical security, etc. "Cloud" isn't magic fairies. It's just renting someone else's points of failure.

In addition, you're forgetting the thousands of points of failure between the building and the cloud provider. Everything from routers being DDOSed by script kiddies to ransomware gangs attacking infrastructure to Phil McCracken slicing a fiber line with his new post hole digger.

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jjav 1641 days ago
The remote solution requires all of those same things, plus in addition it requires internet connectivity to be up and reliable, the cloud provider be available and the third party company be up and still in business.

Adding complexity and moving parts never reduces points of failure. It can reduce daily operating worries as long as everything works, but it can't reduce points of failure. It also means than someday when it breaks, the root causes will be more opaque.

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ec109685 1641 days ago
Within the building’s on premise hosted infrastructure, are they going to buy multiple racks and multiple servers spread far enough apart so that there aren’t many single points of failure that will bring the badge machine down if they fail?
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