[cwiggs]

Sure you can use an AWS ASG, but I assume you also tie that into an AWS AlB/NLB. Then you use ACM for certs and now you are locked in to AWS times 3.

Instead you can do those 3 and more in k8s and it would be the same manifests regardless which k8s cluster you deploy to, EKS, AKS, GKE, on prem, etc.

Plus you don't get service discovery across VMs, you don't get a CSI so good luck if your app is stateful. How do you handle secrets, configs? How do you deploy everything, Ansible, Chef? The list goes on and on.

If your app is simple sure, I haven't seen simple app in years.

[maccard]

I've never worked anywhere that has benefitted from avoiding lock-in. We would have saved thousands in dev-hours if we just used an ALB instead of tweaking nginx and/or caddy.

Also, if you can't convert an ALB into an Azure Load balancer, then you probably have no business doing any sort of software development.

[hobobaggins]

I don't disagree about avoiding lock-in, and I'm sure it was hyperbole, but if you really spent thousands of dev-hours (approx 1 year) on tweaking nginx, you needed different devs ;)

ALB costs get very steep very quickly too, but you're right - start with ALB and then migrate to nginx when costs get too high

[maccard]

Second paragraph is totally right - start with an ALB and move when you need it. At the point you are running into issues with either perf or cost of your ALB you have good problems.