Periodically management says we shouldn't have a DC, just put everything in the cloud.
OK says HPC, here's the quote for replacing one of the (currently three) supercomputers with a cloud service. Oh dear, that's bigger than your entire IT budget isn't it? So I guess we do need the DC for housing the supercomputers.
If we'd done that once I'd feel like well management weren't to know, but it recurs with about a 3-5 year periodicity. The perception seems to be "Cloud exists, therefore it must be cheaper, because if it wasn't cheaper why would it exist?" which reminds me of how people persuade themselves the $50 "genuine Apple" part must be better because if it wasn't better than this $15 part why would Apple charge $50 for it? Because you are a sucker is why.
It's just people conflating popularity with <every positive attribute>.
If <service> is popular, it must also be cheap, beautiful, well documented, have every feature that exists and make you popular with your friends.
I once had a Product Manager try to start an argument with me: "Explain to me how it is possible that the service we pay 25k a month doesn't have <feature>. You don't know what you are saying.". It just didn't do what he wanted, and getting angry with them over the phone didn't magically made the feature appear.
I work in HE so there's obviously much more turnover in senior management than the rest of the hierarchy but that's individual turnover, there's no need for Jim†, who arrived last week, to task HPC with gathering a quote that six of his subordinates and colleagues already know from last time shows this is a waste of time.
† Name changed to protect individuals but also because frankly I don't care very much who is currently doing these roles, there'll be others.
Higher Education. A University. So, senior management are much the same as anywhere (although maybe with at least enough sense to realise that the mission is now different) but many other people are there because of the mission. Researchers, teachers, even if what you actually do is marketing, there's a very different sense of purpose behind that than if you were selling garden furniture.
Yeah, I used to be asked to price out a move to AWS every year at one position. After several years Hetzner finally got cheaper than operating our own colo's, but only basically because we were in London and London real-estate is expensive, and so colo space is accordingly expensive, while Hetzner's DC space is dirt cheap.
AWS, however, remained 2x-3x as expensive, with the devops time factored in.
> The perception seems to be "Cloud exists, therefore it must be cheaper, because if it wasn't cheaper why would it exist?
People are also blithely unaware that large customers get significant discounts, and so I regularly has to explain that BigCo X being hosted in AWS means at most that it is cost-effective for them because their spend means they're getting a significant discount over the already highest volume published pricing, and my clients usually are nowhere close to spend enough to be able to get those discounts.
I think management is just prone to wanting to believe the grass is greener on the other side. If you are already a cloud org with negotiated pricing and cost-optimization management would ask about building a data center and you would show them how much you would need to expand your IT staff in order to acquire the skills to operate the new data center never mind the upfront cost.
Regarding apple parts, I recently replaced a broken screen on a MacBook pro with an OEM part. I can’t get the color to look right. Not to mention the one vertical row where pixels look off (not dead, but not normal either). The guy at the shop said I would not notice. I am now kicking myself for not going with the real thing.
OK says HPC, here's the quote for replacing one of the (currently three) supercomputers with a cloud service. Oh dear, that's bigger than your entire IT budget isn't it? So I guess we do need the DC for housing the supercomputers.
If we'd done that once I'd feel like well management weren't to know, but it recurs with about a 3-5 year periodicity. The perception seems to be "Cloud exists, therefore it must be cheaper, because if it wasn't cheaper why would it exist?" which reminds me of how people persuade themselves the $50 "genuine Apple" part must be better because if it wasn't better than this $15 part why would Apple charge $50 for it? Because you are a sucker is why.