Why Stack Exchange performs so well under incredible load

highscalability.com

60 points·vshlos··6 comments

Open articleView on HN

Please don't use URL shorteners when submitting.

URL = http://highscalability.com/blog/2011/10/24/stackexchange-arc...

I am nervous that this has 8 upvotes already with a shortened link...

What blows my mind is SE runs on Windows and IIs

http://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/10369/which-tools-an...

They basically did an end-run around the $10k SQL Server license.

> They basically did an end-run around the $10k SQL Server license.

Could you elaborate on that? I have utterly no idea what it means based on that post, and Microsoft's semi-functional site is not enlightening me, either.

I am assuming he means the BizSpark program: http://blog.stackoverflow.com/2009/03/stack-overflow-and-biz...

That's not so much an end-run as a delay, though, IMO.

It is a little more complicated than that. The bizspark program lets you continue using the software you have installed without buying the licenses at the end of the program - as long as your use falls within certain parameters. Namely, this "gift" is based off of something like 2 windows standard servers and 1 SQL standard server. We are way beyond that and will have to pay for our licensing at the end of the program. But for a lot of startups that haven't gotten our funding it is a great boon.

The Microsoft "gift" is a balloon payment that could potentially slaughter some startups.

What happens if you are a year in development and then the service is not profitable yet after two years post-launch?

Does the SQL server just stop running?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com