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Re:Azure has run out of compute. Anyone else affected? by bri3d on Friday November 25, 2022 @11:26AM (#33743919)
Every cloud provider will have these issues with specific instance types in specific regions, although the Azure Germany situation sounds perhaps a bit more dire. At my past (much larger) employers we’ve always run into hardware capacity issues with AWS too - we’re just able to work around them.

Building on cloud requires a lot of trade offs, one being a need for very robust cross-region capability and the ability to be flexible with what instance types your infrastructure requires.

I’d use this as a driver to either invest in making your software multi regional or cloud agnostic. Multi regional will be easier. If you’re already on k8s you should have a head start here.

Re:Azure has run out of compute. Anyone else affected? by PaulHoule on Friday November 25, 2022 @11:40AM (#33744111)
There is a "minimal viable product" of documenting the configuration of your system so you can (1) run development, test, staging instances, (2) jump to another region when necessary, (3) from other disasters.

Ideally you have a script that goes from credentials to the service to a complete working instance.

Re:Azure has run out of compute. Anyone else affected? by Innominate on Friday November 25, 2022 @12:10PM (#33744508)
As much as this happens, I don't feel it's something to be expected or even okay.

The major cloud services are expensive. This extra cost is supposed to provide for cloud services' high level of flexibility. Running out of capacity should be a rare event and treated as a high priority problem to be fixed asap.

Without the ability to rapidly and arbitrarily scale, they're just overpriced server farms.

Re:Azure has run out of compute. Anyone else affected? by bagels on Friday November 25, 2022 @12:20PM (#33744637)
Some problems can't be fixed (eg. chip supply chain problems) even if you have more money.
Re:Azure has run out of compute. Anyone else affected? by Havoc on Friday November 25, 2022 @01:03PM (#33745086)
>Some problems can't be fixed (eg. chip supply chain problems) even if you have more money.

They can't magic chips into existence, but leaving a major region like Germany high & dry for almost half a year sounds like planning went wrong frankly. If it were a matter of chips I would have thought on a 3+ month timescale they can steal a few from another region that has a bit of fat

Re:Azure has run out of compute. Anyone else affected? by dharmab on Friday November 25, 2022 @12:38PM (#33744819)
> they're just overpriced server farms

That's exactly what a cloud is. It's someone else's datacenter with an API.

Re:Azure has run out of compute. Anyone else affected? by lanstin on Friday November 25, 2022 @01:44PM (#33745492)
A really good API that makes it close to a software defined everything world. Which has promise.
Re:Azure has run out of compute. Anyone else affected? by unionpivo on Friday November 25, 2022 @01:44PM (#33745489)
> Without the ability to rapidly and arbitrarily scale, they're just overpriced server farms.

I mean that's what cloud is (outsourced server farm). Sure they also offer services on top, but that's mostly because they want to lock you in, and can charge more for, so it's a win win for them.

And there is no magic here, someone has to get the chips, build servers and connect them to network. And while they will often overbuild for capacity, they will never do it to a degree, where they can't run out, because that would be way to expensive and not financially viable.

I don't think any cloud will ever be able to guarantee to never run out of resources.

Re:Azure has run out of compute. Anyone else affected? by remus on Friday November 25, 2022 @05:31PM (#33747539)
> I don't think any cloud will ever be able to guarantee to never run out of resources.

I agree with this, but clearly there's a disconnect between how often people expect these kinds of issues and how often they actually happen. The whole point of the cloud is you pay a premium for the added flexibility. If it turns out that flexibility isn't there when you need it then maintaining your own servers becomes a lot more attractive.