[einhverfr]

At PGConf India, one of the keynotes addressed exactly this topic. The largest stock broker firm in India had made the decision to self-host everything. The CTO made a number of points that I think are missed in this discussion and article, namely:

1. You may think you are a software company, but HR, accounting etc are just as critical to your operations as the customer product. Therefore there isn't really a distinction between core business and non-core business that people like to think, and

2. By self-hosting you ensure you learn the technology and can therefore respond to problems yourself. In an environment where businesses are increasingly on the hook for defects in their services to the end user, that's a good thing.

Obviously hiring knowledgeable people is probably the bottleneck but it is still a cost saver and it is important to create an organizational culture where people can learn the technology on the job.

[sgt]

Agreed fully. You might risk slightly more downtime, but the overall benefit of owning it yourself is well worth it long term.

[einhverfr]

Over time, if you come to understand the technology, you can fix things a managed service cannot, so you might actually risk less downtime if you prioritize that.

At least that's my experience based on fighting weird bugs on managed database services.

[efields]

This is me, a principal frontend engineer and “player-coach” team lead of a few engineers in a pharmaceutical. We do as much as we can for the various digital properties, short of intense design (leaders want a willing agency they can torment).

[InnerGargoyle]

can you link it?

[einhverfr]

https://pgconf.in/conferences/pgconfin2023/program/proposals...

Maybe check back in a week and see if they have the video up.