Recent Internet Outages Highlight the Critical 'Build vs Buy' Decision for Software Infrastructure
By
toddgardner
Pure flour-power. Hearty enough to carry you through lunch.
Summary
The article argues that recent internet infrastructure outages demonstrate the importance of the 'build vs buy' decision for software systems. Using the Jurassic Park analogy where custom software caused catastrophic failure, the author contends that companies should build only what makes them unique and buy standardized infrastructure components. The core lesson is that while buying can reduce risk, organizations must still deeply understand their systems to fix them when they inevitably break.
Key quotes
· 4 pulledThe park's catastrophic failure wasn't just about one disgruntled programmer; it was about choosing to build critical infrastructure that should have been bought.
The simple rule everyone gets wrong: build what makes you unique, buy what makes you run.
But whatever you do, make sure you understand it well enough to fix it when it breaks. Because it will break.
In the span of a few days, we've watched some of the internet's most critical infrastructure go down.
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