How We Knew It Was Time to Leave the Cloud

Re:How We Knew It Was Time to Leave the Cloud by nixgeek on Sunday November 13, 2016 @08:52PM (#12946971)

I kinda disagree, see my other comment on logistical models, this isn't 5000+ system scale or even 500+ system scale.

There's non-trivial cost involved in simply being staffed to accommodate the model you propose, all of the ODM's have some "sharp edges" and you need to be prepared to invest engineering effort into RFP/RFQ processes, tooling and dealing with firmware glitches, etc.

Remember that 500-rack (per buy) scale is table stakes for "those cloud providers", it is their business, whereas GitLab is a software company. Play to your strengths.

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Re:How We Knew It Was Time to Leave the Cloud by kijiki on Monday November 14, 2016 @09:17PM (#12955108)

In my experience, you'll be dealing with firmware glitches even with mainstream OEMs. You can avoid a lot of the RFP/RFQ and scale issues by going to a ODM/OEM hybrid like Edge-core, or Quanta. Or Penguin Computing or Supermicro. If you already have a relationship with Dell or HP, you probably won't get quite as good pricing, but they're still options.

I am shockingly biased (I co-founded Cumulus Networks) but working with a software vendor who can help you with the entire solution is very helpful.

The scale gitlab has talked about in this thread is firmly in the range where self-sparing/ODM/disaggregation make sense. I think 500 racks is a huge overestimate, I think the cross-over point is closer to 5 racks.

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