AWS pricing and optimization is just capacity planning, which doesn’t go away if you run on prem - it just looks different, with longer time horizons & financial implications.
“Will my data center run out of floor space & I need to expand?” (years+)
“Will I have enough cooling & power to support the new racks we need?” (6 months+)
“When do I need to get the server order out to ensure we meet our capacity needs?” (6+ weeks)
Every one of those are capital expenditures, so line them up with the annual budget cycle - be sure to keep enough spare capacity to be responsive for last minute asks.
Don’t think my intent is to romanticize the cloud, either. It’s not better, nor worse, just a different way to manage things.
Of course if your company is sufficiently small, do whatever you know and can do quickly - customer acquisition will be more important than debating the cost of either infra in aws or a colo’d server or two in some racks somewhere. But the complexity doesn’t go away if you go to the cloud, OR if you are all on prem. TINSTAAFL.
“Will my data center run out of floor space & I need to expand?” (years+)
“Will I have enough cooling & power to support the new racks we need?” (6 months+)
“When do I need to get the server order out to ensure we meet our capacity needs?” (6+ weeks)
Every one of those are capital expenditures, so line them up with the annual budget cycle - be sure to keep enough spare capacity to be responsive for last minute asks.
Don’t think my intent is to romanticize the cloud, either. It’s not better, nor worse, just a different way to manage things.
Of course if your company is sufficiently small, do whatever you know and can do quickly - customer acquisition will be more important than debating the cost of either infra in aws or a colo’d server or two in some racks somewhere. But the complexity doesn’t go away if you go to the cloud, OR if you are all on prem. TINSTAAFL.