When we started Paycycle I implemented a little rule that we stick by to this day. It basically says, “thou shall not install”!
When I think about this though, imagine trying to have implemented this say even three or four years ago, there is just no way you would have been able to do it, and when I say anything, I even mean Word, Excel, Outlook, all the normal things that you would normally have to install on everybody’s desktop.
Even though we started with only the two of us, we are working in separate cities, John is in Canberra and I am still in Melbourne and the thought of maintaining or installing an infrastructure to support just the basic development and then leading up to a launch on Monday, is too much to bare.
We use a cloud hosting company where we have something like fifteen servers in operation. If we were to physically pay for and install all of those physical machines that would run in to the high tens of thousand of dollars. That would be extraordinary, but what the cloud enables us to do is that anytime when they need a new server, we just hit the button and deploy it and soon enough we have a new server. If that server needs more resources just press the button and add RAM or whatever you need.
The cloud really is game changing in terms of the way that you can now establish a business. The relative low cost and time compared to the old way of doing things such as installation, deployment, purchasing, racks, UPS, power and backup. Add it all up and it soon becomes ridiculous.
To give you an example, we have got 90 gig of backup, but it is all online. In the old days, if you had to put back that up to tape, I don’t know about you, but with me, it just wouldn’t have happened. Let alone the cost of tapes. And another example, all our machine and resource monitoring is just plug and play. We set up the server, we install a little agent and it is done. Another example is how our exchange email is hosted in the USA. If another employee starts with us, we just log on, pay a few dollars extra a month and that is done. We do not have to worry about backup, server capacity, internet access -- if the internet goes down, our email is still running. It’s someone else’s problem.
So, we are practicing what we are preaching basically. There is no reason why any business these days needs to install any server infrastructure. Okay, so you keep your keep your local files somewhere close by and backup. Arguably, there are even services for that these days.
So, I guess the point is, that the world really has changed. There is currently a lot of talk around hybrid cloud and private clad and all that. Forget it! It’s not the point. The point is, if you have got an idea, there really is nothing stopping you from getting up and going and running with far less cost and time than what it used to be.
We are looking forward to launching on Monday and the only reason that we have been able to do that so quickly is because we do not have all the issues that would have slowed things down a few years ago.