6 ms·

I think the idea is that, in fact, you do. Not one-time cost, but rather TCO.

esseph 1mo ago
You get a fully auditable hardware and software BOM, and you get an air-gapped, API-driven, on-prem cloud. You still have a fairly large up front cost ($600k base in 2023ish numbers, probably over $1M now?), and an ongoing support subscription.
- nujabe 1mo ago
  I think it’s fair to assume the idea is for it to eventually be more cost effective than other solutions as they scale up.
  - esseph 1mo ago
    I've never been under the impression that is the case. They are filling a niche no one else is for a small pool of fish with virtually endless pockets.
    - wmf 1mo ago
      That really doesn't sound like a good business though.
      - esseph 1mo ago
        I can't even fathom this statement tbh, it doesn't make any sense. They are in the most profitable and protected niche there can be in the US.
        wmf 1mo ago
        Historically, selling to a small niche of price-insensitive customers (e.g. mainframes, defense) breeds complacency and eventual failure. You can see VMware go down that death spiral over its history where every release was more expensive with less innovation.
        esseph 1mo ago
        > Historically, selling to a small niche of price-insensitive customers (e.g. mainframes, defense) breeds complacency and eventual failure. VMware was a publicly traded company got more than a 20 year run where they dominated virtualization and captured over 80% of virtualized servers. That a publicly traded company sold out to another publicly traded company over and over after two decades where they got scraped for change in the couch cushions doesn't surprise me at all. > (e.g. mainframes, defense) And yet mainframes are still in use, still getting purchased, and Defense is by far the largest segment seeing movement in the US right now. TONS of dollars, much of it going into AI, drones, etc. Much of which needs digital and infrastructure development and deployment for R&D and operations. Right now is probably an amazing time for them sales / interest wise. A LOT of money going into software and hardware attestation right now.

You get a fully auditable hardware and software BOM, and you get an air-gapped, API-driven, on-prem cloud. You still have a fairly large up front cost ($600k base in 2023ish numbers, probably over $1M now?), and an ongoing support subscription.

nujabe 1mo ago
I think it’s fair to assume the idea is for it to eventually be more cost effective than other solutions as they scale up.
- esseph 1mo ago
  I've never been under the impression that is the case. They are filling a niche no one else is for a small pool of fish with virtually endless pockets.
  - wmf 1mo ago
    That really doesn't sound like a good business though.
    - esseph 1mo ago
      I can't even fathom this statement tbh, it doesn't make any sense. They are in the most profitable and protected niche there can be in the US.
      - wmf 1mo ago
        Historically, selling to a small niche of price-insensitive customers (e.g. mainframes, defense) breeds complacency and eventual failure. You can see VMware go down that death spiral over its history where every release was more expensive with less innovation.
        esseph 1mo ago
        > Historically, selling to a small niche of price-insensitive customers (e.g. mainframes, defense) breeds complacency and eventual failure. VMware was a publicly traded company got more than a 20 year run where they dominated virtualization and captured over 80% of virtualized servers. That a publicly traded company sold out to another publicly traded company over and over after two decades where they got scraped for change in the couch cushions doesn't surprise me at all. > (e.g. mainframes, defense) And yet mainframes are still in use, still getting purchased, and Defense is by far the largest segment seeing movement in the US right now. TONS of dollars, much of it going into AI, drones, etc. Much of which needs digital and infrastructure development and deployment for R&D and operations. Right now is probably an amazing time for them sales / interest wise. A LOT of money going into software and hardware attestation right now.