To add to your point, I like writing software, I know how to set up networks, load balancers, VMs, databases, messaging servers, etc. I have no interest in doing it or being on call. I mercilessly recommend managed alternatives anytime I can. I have a manager who was glad to kill our SFTP server and pay more money for AWS’s managed solution.
He would much rather hand his boss - the founder - a bill than have to explain why our server went down.
That's all great until interruptions in the service you are depending on interferes with your business getting done (and you can't fix or mitigate the problem yourself).
Don't get me wrong, if you choose your partners carefully you can make this work in many (probably most) scenarios, and save yourself some headaches in the process. But even with the bigger players (like AWS), there is a tradeoff to handing such things over to someone else. Services aren't always as reliable and partners aren't always as resposive as they are advertised.
I totally get why people don't want to do such things themselves. I just think it is important for people to realize that doing so has its own set of consequences and risks that they should be aware of. I suspect most of the folks on HN are aware of this, but there does seem to be an awful lot of "it would be dumb to do that yourself" sentiment here.
Don't get me wrong, if you choose your partners carefully you can make this work in many (probably most) scenarios, and save yourself some headaches in the process. But even with the bigger players (like AWS), there is a tradeoff to handing such things over to someone else. Services aren't always as reliable and partners aren't always as resposive as they are advertised.
AWS is a lot more reliable than almost any in house solution. As far as being responsive, if you have a business support plan with AWS, you can always reach live, helpful support. Trust me, being on the Dev side, when I need resources on AWS, it’s just a click, script, or CloudFormation template away. Getting resources provisioned through the infrastructure gatekeepers can literally take weeks.
And just from the CYA standpoint and “no one ever got fired for buying IBM”. If your colo goes down everyone looks at you crazy and you have a lot of questions to answer. If AWS goes down and you took the appropriate steps at least making your infrastructure AZ redundant if not multi region redundant, it’s going to make news and no one is going to question why you chose AWS.
He would much rather hand his boss - the founder - a bill than have to explain why our server went down.