Re:When EC2 Hardware Changes Underneath You
by Spooky23 on Wednesday January 09, 2013 @08:50AM
(#5031432)
Doing that is probably fine for 80% of applications.
Even internally, we have a few crusty applications that have been running in virtual environments since sometime around 2006 without any modifications other than security patching and VM migration as the underlying hardware is refreshed.
That said, if you have a real business requirement for a system that's expected to sit and spin for a decade without care and feeding, that's different. You probably want to use physical hardware that is going to be static OR use a PaaS where the provider in obliged to support your app in it's as-is state for the time that it needs to exist.
In the olden days, companies that provided things like accounting and billing solutions to SMBs and vertical markets (doctors, auto dealers, etc) would put it on an AS/400 or HP 9000 that was reliable and would phone home to call a tech in to replace failed components.
Even internally, we have a few crusty applications that have been running in virtual environments since sometime around 2006 without any modifications other than security patching and VM migration as the underlying hardware is refreshed.
That said, if you have a real business requirement for a system that's expected to sit and spin for a decade without care and feeding, that's different. You probably want to use physical hardware that is going to be static OR use a PaaS where the provider in obliged to support your app in it's as-is state for the time that it needs to exist.
In the olden days, companies that provided things like accounting and billing solutions to SMBs and vertical markets (doctors, auto dealers, etc) would put it on an AS/400 or HP 9000 that was reliable and would phone home to call a tech in to replace failed components.