DevOps, Deployment, Infrastructure
Pipelines, containers, observability, on call rotation, and the operational layer that keeps SaaS alive.
45 posts · page 1 of 2
- DevOps, Deployment, Infrastructure
The Cost of Free Tiers: When They Bite
Free tiers on cloud services and SaaS tools hide their costs until you need them most. Here is when they become expensive and how to plan for it.
6 min read
- DevOps, Deployment, Infrastructure
Tagging Strategy on AWS: The One That Pays Off
AWS tagging is the difference between an understandable cloud bill and a mysterious one. Here is the tagging strategy that actually holds up over time.
6 min read
- DevOps, Deployment, Infrastructure
Status Pages That Build Trust During Outages
A status page is your first line of communication when things break. Build one before the outage, not after.
6 min read
- DevOps, Deployment, Infrastructure
SLOs and SLIs for Founders: A Plain Language Guide
SLOs and SLIs turn reliability into a measurable commitment. Here is what they mean and why they matter.
7 min read
- DevOps, Deployment, Infrastructure
Self Hosting on Hetzner vs AWS: The Real Tradeoffs
Hetzner is dramatically cheaper than AWS. The question is what that cost difference buys and what it costs in terms of operations, compliance, and scale capability. Here is an honest comparison for teams making this decision.
6 min read
- DevOps, Deployment, Infrastructure
Secrets in CI: The Patterns That Avoid Leaks
CI pipelines are a common vector for secret leaks. Environment variables, build logs, pull request previews, and third-party integrations all create exposure points. Here is how to handle secrets in CI without leaking them.
6 min read
- DevOps, Deployment, Infrastructure
Runbooks That Actually Get Used During Incidents
Most runbooks are written once and never consulted during an actual incident. The ones that get used share specific qualities. Here is how to write runbooks that work when the pressure is on.
6 min read
- DevOps, Deployment, Infrastructure
Reserved Instances, Savings Plans, Spot: The Saving Map
AWS has three distinct mechanisms for reducing compute costs below on-demand pricing. Using the wrong one for a workload leaves money on the table or creates unnecessary interruption risk. Here is the map.
6 min read
- DevOps, Deployment, Infrastructure
Point in Time Recovery: A Founder's Insurance Policy
Point in time recovery (PITR) is the ability to restore a database to any moment in the past, not just to the last backup. Here is how it works, what it costs, and why every SaaS product should have it before they need it.
6 min read
- DevOps, Deployment, Infrastructure
Pager Fatigue and How to Prevent It
Pager fatigue happens when on-call engineers stop trusting alerts because too many of them are false positives. Here is what causes it, what it costs, and how to build an alerting system that engineers respond to instead of dismissing.
6 min read
- DevOps, Deployment, Infrastructure
OpenTelemetry: A Practical Adoption Guide
OpenTelemetry is the vendor-neutral standard for application telemetry. Here is what it actually includes, how to instrument a Node.js or Python service in a day, and how to avoid the common mistakes that make OpenTelemetry harder than it needs to be.
6 min read
- DevOps, Deployment, Infrastructure
Observability in 2026: Metrics, Logs, Traces
Metrics, logs, and traces are the three pillars of observability, but most teams implement them inconsistently and use them reactively. Here is how observability works, what each pillar gives you, and how to build a system that tells you what is wrong before users report it.
6 min read
- DevOps, Deployment, Infrastructure
Multi Region Deployments: Decision Framework and Cost Math
Multi-region infrastructure costs two to three times what single-region costs to operate. Here is the decision framework and the actual cost math for adding a second or third region to a SaaS product.
6 min read
- DevOps, Deployment, Infrastructure
Logging Strategy for SaaS: Structured, Searchable, Useful
Logs that are not searchable during an incident are not logs. Here is the structured logging strategy that makes SaaS application logs useful when something breaks at 2am and you need to find the problem fast.
6 min read
- DevOps, Deployment, Infrastructure
Kubernetes for Startups: When It Makes Sense, When It Does Not
Kubernetes is real infrastructure for real scale. Here is how to know if you are there yet.
7 min read
- DevOps, Deployment, Infrastructure
Infrastructure as Code: Terraform vs Pulumi vs CDK
Terraform, Pulumi, and CDK all solve the same problem differently. The right choice depends on your team's language preferences, cloud targets, and how much you trust HCL. Here is a practical breakdown.
6 min read
- DevOps, Deployment, Infrastructure
Incident Severity Levels: A Practical Definition
Severity levels are the vocabulary your team uses to decide how fast to move and who to wake up. Here is a practical framework for defining them in a way that actually gets used during incidents.
6 min read
- DevOps, Deployment, Infrastructure
GitHub Actions vs CircleCI vs Buildkite in 2026
GitHub Actions for most teams. CircleCI for those that want a polished managed experience. Buildkite for teams that need hybrid hosted and self hosted runners. Three credible CI options.
11 min read
- DevOps, Deployment, Infrastructure
Fly.io, Railway, Render, Vercel: The 2026 Platform Comparison
Four credible application platforms in 2026. Each wins a different shape of workload. The honest read of where each fits and where each loses.
12 min read
- DevOps, Deployment, Infrastructure
Feature Flags as a Deployment Strategy
Feature flags are not just a release tool. Used well, they are the deployment strategy. The team that deploys to production multiple times a day with confidence does it with flags.
11 min read
- DevOps, Deployment, Infrastructure
Egress Costs on AWS: The Bill Nobody Sees Coming
AWS egress costs grow silently with usage. The bill arrives a month later. The teams that take egress seriously cut it by an order of magnitude. The teams that do not pay the full rate forever.
11 min read
- DevOps, Deployment, Infrastructure
Datadog vs New Relic vs Grafana Cloud vs Honeycomb
Datadog for breadth. New Relic for ease. Grafana Cloud for cost and customization. Honeycomb for distributed tracing depth. Four credible observability stacks. Each fits a different team.
12 min read
- DevOps, Deployment, Infrastructure
Database Hosted vs Self Hosted: An Honest Comparison
Managed databases cost more in dollars and less in time. Self hosted databases cost less in dollars and more in time. The right call depends on what your team has more of.
11 min read
- DevOps, Deployment, Infrastructure
Database Backups: The Setup Most Teams Get Wrong
Database backups are easier to misconfigure than to configure correctly. The defaults are dangerous. The right setup is small but specific. Here is what to verify before you need the backup.
11 min read