Video and slides synchronized, mp3 and slide download available at URL http://bit.ly/1RhCs6a. Building infrastructure components was once the domain of only the very largest of internet operations like Google and Facebook. Increasingly though we see non-Google, non-infrastructure companies building their own infrastructure software. From his experience at Uber, Matt Ranney explores why the build or buy tradeoff is so difficult, and make some recommendations for both vendors and users. Filmed at qconsf.com. Matt Ranney is the Chief Systems Architect at Uber. He has a computer science degree which has come in handy over a career of mostly network engineering, operations, and analytics.

1. THEFUTUREOF
BUILDVSBUYMATT RANNEY

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Watch the video with slide
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/build-buy-tradeoff

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Strategy
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4. INFRASTRUCTURE

11. Productivity without complexity
Communication between “man” and machine is extremely
complicated.
They are not automatic enough.
They are not efficient. Studies show that <components> are idle
much of the time—while work waits to be done!
They are not flexible enough. Big problems are created when
workloads change, since expansion or alteration of system
capabilities requires costly reprogramming.

16. Bell’s Law for the birth and death of computer classes:
A theory of the computer’s evolution
MSR-TR-2007-146
http://research.microsoft.com/pubs/64155/tr-2007-146.pdf

17. “Computer classes die or are overtaken by
lower priced, more rapidly evolving general
purpose computers”
MSR-TR-2007-146
http://research.microsoft.com/pubs/64155/tr-2007-146.pdf

20. ⚠

21. TRENDS

22. Percent of US Population Online
Pew Research Center
http://www.pewinternet.org/data-trend/internet-use/internet-use-over-time/

23. CLOUD

27. empty shelf
crazy scale
increased expectations

29. NIH

30. PEOPLE

31. YOU WILL BECOME
OBSOLETE

32. WHEN TO BUILD

33. build vs. buy
build and easily support vs. buy and be at the mercy
of a vendor
build vs. buy vs. service

34. END OF VENDORS?

35. SUPPORT

36. OSS

37. OSS and prod diverge
foundations
patents

51. Everybody struggles with this.
It’s all going to be a commodity eventually.
Try to build up the stack.
Try to build in the open.

52. THANKS

53. Watch the video with slide
synchronization on InfoQ.com!
http://www.infoq.com/presentations/
build-buy-tradeoff