Cloud - Commodity Primitives

When running your containers and databases and storing files in object storage, you will need an underlying infrastructure provider to do so - often referred to as a cloud.

Public Cloud

Public cloud providers such as AWS or Google Cloud are a solid choice. If you just want a single recommendation here, choose AWS.

The main word of caution when using a public cloud provider is that you should always stick to their primitives such as:

• Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) Networking: AWS VPC or Google Cloud VPC.
• Virtual Machines/VMs: AWS EC2 or Google Cloud Compute Engine.
• Managed Databases: AWS RDS or Aurora or Google Cloud SQL for PostgreSQL.
• IAM: AWS IAM or Google Cloud IAM.
• Object Storage: S3 or Google Cloud Storage.

Any other offering from these cloud providers should be carefully assessed, as often they lead to vendor lock-in which per-cloud proprietary standards and offerings.

Private Cloud

Private cloud means hosting on your own hardware - for this, MaaS is a solid choice.

Cloud - Commodity Primitives

Smart organizations build on commodity cloud primitives to reduce costs, eliminate vendor lock-in, and maintain strategic flexibility. By choosing standard services that work across all major cloud providers, companies ensure predictable scaling, transparent pricing, and the freedom to negotiate from a position of strength.

Why Cloud Commodities

⚡ Fast

• Accelerate time-to-market: Standard cloud services enable rapid deployment without complex vendor-specific learning curves
• Reduce operational complexity: Universal patterns mean your team can be productive immediately
• Scale instantly: Commodity services provide proven scaling patterns that work consistently across environments

🛡️ Durable

• Eliminate vendor risk: Never be held hostage by proprietary services or pricing changes
• Ensure business continuity: Multi-provider compatibility protects against service disruptions or vendor failures
• Future-proof investments: Standard primitives remain viable as cloud ecosystem evolves

💰 Cost Effective

• Transparent pricing: Commodity services have competitive, well-understood cost structures
• Negotiating leverage: Multi-provider capability strengthens contract negotiations
• Avoid premium lock-in: Skip expensive proprietary features that create dependency without proportional value

Business Benefits

Strategic Flexibility: Move workloads between providers based on pricing, performance, or regulatory requirements without costly rewrites.

Operational Efficiency: Teams skilled in commodity cloud patterns are more productive and easier to hire than specialists in proprietary platforms.

Risk Mitigation: Reduce exposure to vendor-specific outages, pricing changes, or discontinued services that can disrupt operations.

Budget Predictability: Standard primitives have stable, competitive pricing models that enable accurate financial planning and cost optimization.

Technical Recommendations

Build your infrastructure using these proven commodity primitives available across all major cloud providers:

• Virtual machines for compute (AWS EC2, Google Compute Engine, Azure Virtual Machines)
• Object storage for files and backups (AWS S3, Google Cloud Storage, Azure Blob Storage)
• Managed databases with standard engines (RDS PostgreSQL, Cloud SQL PostgreSQL, Azure Database)
• Load balancers with HTTP/HTTPS termination and health checking
• DNS with standard record types, health checks, and geographic routing
• Container orchestration using Kubernetes on managed control planes

Focus on services that implement open standards and avoid proprietary APIs, custom query languages, or vendor-specific frameworks.

Getting Started

1. Audit existing services: Identify proprietary dependencies that create lock-in risks
2. Standardize on primitives: Choose basic building blocks that exist across all major providers
3. Train teams: Invest in skills that transfer between cloud environments
4. Plan migrations: Design systems that can move between providers with minimal changes