this post was submitted on 28 Apr 2026
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Operating and administering your own systems infrastructure requires that your business invest in the people to do so, this builds institutional knowledge which makes the important bit, the data and knowledge, portable. If the VM in the cloud gets too expensive you can use another provider, or you can buy hardware and run it locally. If the VM provider cuts your service you still have access to your data because you never lost control of it. Problems can be fixed by in house staff that don't suddenly evaporate for arbitrary reasons or have service outages.
If your entire business depends on Microsoft services and it gets too expensive you have no options but to pay more. If your account gets locked then you're out of business until you can get Microsoft to give you access again. If you want to migrate away, there isn't another Microsoft to move your data to and you've replaced all of your technical staff with a support phone number, which isn't currently accepting your calls.
I see. And the hardware (realistically for small businesses) one-time payment of say (quite overkill) $10 grand is somehow more prohibiting than adding the sysadmin(s) and whatnot to your payroll? Sounds backwards to me.
You're right, it would depend on the business.
A small 3-4 person office is probably saving way more money using cloud-based SAAS than hiring an IT team. The larger the company gets the less of an impact they would feel hiring more personnel or buying hardware.
It isn't that these services are always bad. It's just that, like everything in the tech sector, they've collectively reached the point where they're enshittifying and trying to squeeze their existing customers rather than find new ways to add value.
Eventually the increasing costs will make alternatives more attractive.