[mlhpdx]

Everyone doing multi-tenant SaaS wants cost to be a sub-linear function of usage. This model of large unit capacity divided by small work units is an example of how to get there. The tough bit is that it’s stepwise at low volumes, and becomes linear at large scale, so it’s only magic during the growth phase — which is pretty solid for a growth phase company showing numbers for the next raise.

[hinkley]

Something for nothing or the Tragedy of the Commons. Many want a fair division of the cost but an unfair portion of the shared resource, subsidized by people who have not figured out how to minmax their slice of the pie. Doesn’t work when several clever people share the same resource pool.

[mlhpdx]

I’m not sure I get the connection? Designing systems for sub-linear cost scaling is just an engineering problem.