Risks and Reality Checks
Provider Terms of Service: The Clauses That Matter
Nobody reads them in full, and nobody needs to. Six sections determine almost everything that can go wrong.
3 min read
Read the articleCloud Insights
Practical explanations of the things that decide a cloud bill, a migration or a verification outcome.
Risks and Reality Checks
What Happens When a Provider Discontinues a Service
Cloud services are retired more often than people expect. The process is usually orderly, and the planning that makes it survivable is…
3 min read
Risks and Reality Checks
Vendor Lock-In: What Is Real and What Is Overstated
Lock-in is a genuine risk that is routinely used to justify expensive architecture. Separating the real constraints from the imagined ones.
3 min read
Risks and Reality Checks
Cloud Credits, Trials and the Limits of Free
Free tiers are real and genuinely useful. They are also bounded in ways that cause predictable problems for anyone who treats them…
3 min read
Risks and Reality Checks
Port 25 and Outbound Email: Why It Is Blocked
Nearly every provider blocks outbound SMTP by default. The reason is specific, and the correct workaround is not to get it unblocked.
3 min read
Risks and Reality Checks
Why Purchased Cloud Accounts Get Suspended
The mechanism is specific and well understood. Knowing how detection works explains why this fails consistently rather than occasionally.
4 min read
Operations
Server Logs: What to Keep and for How Long
Logs are the only record of what actually happened. They are also a storage cost and a privacy liability, which makes retention…
3 min read
Operations
What an Uptime Guarantee Really Promises
A service level agreement is a billing arrangement, not a promise that things will not break. Reading one properly changes what you…
3 min read
Operations
Managed Databases vs Running Your Own
A managed database costs more per month and less in attention. Which trade is right depends on one honest question.
3 min read
Operations
Object Storage vs Block Storage
Two things both called storage, with almost nothing in common. Choosing the wrong one makes straightforward work unnecessarily hard.
3 min read