RDS gets you easy integration with the rest of the AWS services, which as a startup, you’re probably using quite a few of.
Also, if you are nickel and diming over expenses in the 50€ range, you’re probably at the wrong startup.
Also, if you are nickel and diming over expenses in the 50€ range, you’re probably at the wrong startup.
We’re not talking about maintaining your own k8s cluster here mind you, but a basic Postgres setup. If you can’t handle that comfortably in an afternoon, you probably shouldn’t be entrusted with customer data.
Intelligence is being able to set up your own postgres database with backups, PITR, retention policies, HA/replicas, and everything else needed to prevent catastrophic data loss. Wisdom is realizing that's a solved problem completely unrelated to your business, so you don't have to.
1. Don't use a third-party auth provider, if you can't build out an OAuth provider in an afternoon you shouldn't be entrusted with login credentials
2. Don't use Github, if you can't build out an internal Gitlab instance in an afternoon you shouldn't be entrusted with securing source code
3. Don't use Github Actions or CircleCI, if you can't self-host a Jenkins server in an afternoon you shouldn't be entrusted with secure deployments
4. Don't use a lawyer or outsourced HR, if you can't draft legally binding employment agreement in an afternoon you shouldn't be entrusted with hiring people
Other than that, yes! Setting up a Keycloak instance as opposed to handing over login credentials to Octa should be a consideration. Keeping your source code in GitLab over tying your entire development workflow to Microsoft vibe coders with an awful track record is a sensible stance.
> Don't use a lawyer or outsourced HR, if you can't draft legally binding employment agreement in an afternoon you shouldn't be entrusted with hiring people
That's a little ridiculous; there's an overlap between someone setting up a database for a startup and someone programmatically using a database at a startup. The overlap between that person and someone with a legal background is infinitesimally smaller.
And RDS is doing a lot more for you than what you can set up in an afternoon w.r.t observability and features that are just a click away. I actually implemented some of those features when I worked there :)