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What's left for solo devs in a cloud-centric world?

5 points by cutler ↗ HN
I've been a freelance solo software engineer for most of my 21 years in the industry but that world seems to be shrinking. My modus operandi is to grab a VPS and run through a config recipe. In half an hour I'm done. Calculating monthly costs is also a no-brainer unlike the labyrinthine setup and accounting needed to swim in the AWS ocean. Lately I've started to wonder how long before my small business clients start drinking the Docker + Kubernetes + AWS kool and the hands-on approach is a thing of the past.

13 comments

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tsjq
yes. and then you become AWS Billing / Pricing consultant .
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pestatije
I see both issues as independent from one another.

Solo devs can use the cloud too. If the customer wants the kool aid, let them pay for the extra effort.

cnuss
I'm a tad confused on the question... - what's your recipe actually set up on the VPS? - is the fear that your clients will want Docker/Kube from the get-go and not your single-server solution?
cutler
It's more about general trends for solo devs. Are we all going to be forced to go down the AWS route in the long-run?
cnuss
Yea it sucks to be forced in any direction, I feel your pain with the complicated-ness of AWS. Alternative to AWS, what sort of alternatives you see emerging? In my research I've found a handful of PaaS/Self-Hosted options (Bubbles, Budibase, Mendix, DronaHQ, etc), why not use them? Then people also ask, why not just use Heroku or DigitalOcean?

Loaded question, but, asking anyways, what's wrong with AWS?

I'm personally attempting to make AWS "easier" and less of a labyrinth with my projects. I'd love to pick your brain if you have a few moments to spare, solo devs like you and me is who I'm trying to cater to.

cutler
I've used Linode and Digital Ocean in the past and more recently Hetzner who are ridiculously cheap. I just don't like the idea of Amazon having access to my bank account exposing me to arbitrary charges.
cnuss
Yea I've used those too, great way to get a quick lil server up and running...

Quick question, I've on a AWS bootstrapping/code deployment framework to AWS currently, would you be willing to kick the tires on it a bit?

Put briefly, it configures an AWS org and domain, a GitHub Org, provides template repos, and connects all the wires...

https://docs.scaffold.ly/tutorials

It's not the Docker/Kube Kool-aide, but it is the Lambda+Serverless Kool-aide, so AWS charges for idle infra are near-zero.

I don't have much context on what you're building for your solo projects, but I'd like to learn more, so feel free to message me directly too, hackernews [at] cnuss dotcom

cutler
You're way ahead of me so there's nothing I can teach you. I dipped my toe into AWS a couple of times but decided it was less stress for me and my client to go with a VPS on Hetznder, Linode or Digital Ocean. Most of my work has been typical MVC web apps with Rails, PHP & Perl.
sdevonoes
Mine is:

- terraform to setup the VPS from the command line

- Ansible to provision the VPS

Ansible's model is quite simple and you don't require an agent running in each VPS to provision it.

I don't use containers (each VPS is on charge of one thing only. Example: 1 VPS for nginx, 1 for my Go/Python/whatever server, 1 for DB, 1 as a bastion host, etc.)

cableshaft
Time to learn cloud tech I guess. I'm buckling down and learning it finally myself, even though none of my jobs have required it yet (but pretty much every recruiter reaching out to me is looking for cloud experience this time around).
tarr11
Aws lightsail starts at $3.50 / month for a VPS.

I’d suggest you start there to learn about aws and figure out the rest as you go. If you prefer linode or DO they are pretty good at your use case.

I wouldn’t use k8s unless you have a real need for it. It sounds like you don’t.

ianpurton
- I've started to wonder how long before my small business clients start drinking the Docker + Kubernetes + AWS kool

Pretty soon.

I'm not using docker because it's cool. I use it because it has advantages over copying an exe over to a VPS and calling it done. A few of the benefits,

- A Dockerfile in source control that has the setup I need for that exe. i.e. those commands you run by hand apt-get install openssl etc etc.

- Various security features such as usage of linux namespaces and cgroups. - The ability to chose where I deploy, Azure webapps, Digital Ocean K8s, google, anywhere basically.

And don't have forget after you have setup a VPS you still have to maintain it, security patches etc.