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Why is reddit relying on only one cloud provider? AWS can/should do better but service providers of the size of reddit should be using mult-vendor set-ups for s

Why is reddit relying on only one cloud provider? AWS can/should do better but service providers of the size of reddit should be using mult-vendor set-ups for sure.

jvanenk 16y ago
It probably has something to do with the group being very small. Sure they turn a lot of traffic, but there's only so much you can do with a group of their size on what I imagine is still a limited budget.
- rworth 16y ago
  Sounds like a case of similar to safety systems at a nuclear plant. Not pressing until it is REALLY PRESSING! Its the usual dilemma, investing time/moey on something that most likely wont be needed versus adding that cool feature all the users will immediately see the benefit of. In a competitive environment, it isn't difficult to understand how they ended up on one vendor.
  - davidw 16y ago
    If a nuclear plant has problems, it can kill a lot of people, and wreck the lives of many others. If reddit has problems, I suppose the worst that can happen is a cloud of toxic and poorly thought out comments is released on the internet. So the tradeoffs they've made, in saving some money, are probably sensible.
    - DennisP 16y ago
      > If reddit has problems, I suppose the worst that can happen is a cloud of toxic and poorly thought out comments is released on the internet. Actually, that's what happens when reddit is working :)
      - davidw 16y ago
        Well, depending on prevailing conditions, they might be more widely dispersed rather than contained within the special "echo chamber" that reddit has built for that purpose.
bhousel 16y ago
They did say in their original post-mortem that spreading the load among multiple availability zones has been on their todo list for a while. It has just taken longer than they expected with their limited engineering staff.
fuzzmeister 16y ago
Is a multi-provider setup common? I certainly think Reddit should be on multiple availability zones within AWS, but spanning multiple providers seems hugely more difficult.

Why is reddit relying on only one cloud provider? AWS can/should do better but service providers of the size of reddit should be using mult-vendor set-ups for sure.

jvanenk 16y ago

It probably has something to do with the group being very small. Sure they turn a lot of traffic, but there's only so much you can do with a group of their size on what I imagine is still a limited budget.

rworth 16y ago
Sounds like a case of similar to safety systems at a nuclear plant. Not pressing until it is REALLY PRESSING! Its the usual dilemma, investing time/moey on something that most likely wont be needed versus adding that cool feature all the users will immediately see the benefit of. In a competitive environment, it isn't difficult to understand how they ended up on one vendor.
- davidw 16y ago
  If a nuclear plant has problems, it can kill a lot of people, and wreck the lives of many others. If reddit has problems, I suppose the worst that can happen is a cloud of toxic and poorly thought out comments is released on the internet. So the tradeoffs they've made, in saving some money, are probably sensible.
  - DennisP 16y ago
    > If reddit has problems, I suppose the worst that can happen is a cloud of toxic and poorly thought out comments is released on the internet. Actually, that's what happens when reddit is working :)
    - davidw 16y ago
      Well, depending on prevailing conditions, they might be more widely dispersed rather than contained within the special "echo chamber" that reddit has built for that purpose.

bhousel 16y ago

They did say in their original post-mortem that spreading the load among multiple availability zones has been on their todo list for a while. It has just taken longer than they expected with their limited engineering staff.

fuzzmeister 16y ago

Is a multi-provider setup common? I certainly think Reddit should be on multiple availability zones within AWS, but spanning multiple providers seems hugely more difficult.