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by kansface 1533 days ago
Products don't run themselves. Software must be upgraded because of security patches; if you don't keep up, after a while you can't because of skew. Customers require support when stuff goes wrong. Infrastructure changes from underneath you. SDKs change all the time. The law itself changes what is allowed or what is required.
3 comments

Depends on what kind of product. I've built an app that I haven't touched in many years with about $1M in monthly revenue (extremely low margin) and it's all good. Yes, it hasn't had any security patches in years and it's just a matter of time before it gets hacked but no big deal. If shit really hits the fan I will just shut it down. Not offering any support. Customers know I don't add anything. Not sure what law would affect anything.
> I've built an app that I haven't touched in many years with about $1M in monthly revenue (extremely low margin) and it's all good. Yes, it hasn't had any security patches in years

You have a product bringing in $12 million per year (EDIT: I misread the profit remark originally, apologies to Kiro), and you can’t be bothered to do basic security updates?

> it's just a matter of time before it gets hacked but no big deal. If shit really hits the fan I will just shut it down.

You’re basically waiting to get hacked and your response plan is to just shut it down? And turn off $12 million in annual revenue because you didn’t feel like applying security updates?

Are you sure you mean $1 million per month in revenue? Because this doesn’t make any sense at all.

If this is true and accurate, you can at least see why this wouldn't apply to virtually anyone else running a high-profit software app, right? Especially not something like Friday.app which includes customer data.

No, extremely low margin = miniscule profit compared to the revenue.

Otherwise you're right. I simply can't be bothered and I don't even have access set up to the server on my current machine.

I am having a "Life of Brian" moment here.

Me- Look a multi-gazillionaire!

Kiro - The profit is miniscule!

Me- They has spoken!

What is it if you don't mind sharing?
Think Roman numerals.

1M is thousand 1MM is million

https://gettingpeopleright.com/resources/what-does-m-and-mm-...

No, I'm talking about 1 million a month so that's on me for using it incorrectly then. Apologies.
> $1M in monthly revenue (extremely low margin)

taking a guess that your app is an API wrapper of some kind? the $ you move is basically through your account from customer to service provider on each call and you charge some low flat rate per month for access?

Overhead. It's still a valid question. Maybe the CEO can answer.
> Products don't run themselves.

That really depends on the product and how you built it. With platforms like Google App Engine or Heroku, there's no infrastructure to take care of and the only thing you have to patch/update is your own code. Customer support can be an issue, but some products are naturally self-service. Or cheap enough that there's no expectation of quality support.

I do think you need to plan for this sort of thing if you want to be able to walk away (even for a short vacation). If your natural inclination is to start with k8s, you're going to need ongoing devops work in perpetuity.