I am building a cloud
A co-founder of Tailscale passionately critiques the fundamental flaws of modern cloud computing, from inefficient VM abstractions to exorbitant costs, calling Kubernetes 'lipstick on a pig'. He's launching exe.dev to build a new cloud, one designed from the ground up for flexibility, efficiency, and developer satisfaction, driven by a pure love for computers. This deep technical argument resonates with many in the HN community who share similar frustrations with the complexities and compromises of today's cloud landscape.
The Lowdown
The author, a co-founder of the successful company Tailscale, discusses his motivation for starting a new venture, exe.dev, which aims to build a fundamentally different cloud platform. He admits to a deep personal passion for computers but a profound dissatisfaction with the current state of cloud computing, believing its abstractions are fundamentally 'the wrong shape'.
- Fundamental Dislikes of Current Cloud:
- VMs: Current cloud VMs are tied to CPU/memory, making them inflexible. The author desires raw resource provisioning (CPU, memory, disk) to run VMs as processes, similar to cgroups.
- PaaS: Proprietary, less powerful, and prone to hidden limitations that derail projects.
- Disk: Remote block devices, efficient for old HDDs, become a massive performance bottleneck for modern SSDs, leading to exorbitant costs for high IOPS. Local NVMe is preferred.
- Networking: Hyperscalers charge excessive egress fees, making projects unaffordable unless operating at massive scale.
- APIs & Kubernetes: Cloud APIs are painful, and Kubernetes, while well-intentioned, is an attempt to solve an 'impossible problem' by building abstractions on top of fundamentally flawed ones, likened to 'putting lipstick on a pig'.
- Catalyst for Change: The rise of AI agents is creating a surge in software development (Jevons paradox), increasing the demand for more compute and easier management. Current cloud abstractions hinder agent efficiency by consuming context windows on complex workarounds.
- exe.dev's Approach: The new platform directly addresses these issues:
- Users provision raw CPU and memory, running their own VMs.
- Includes built-in TLS and authentication proxies.
- Utilizes local NVMe disks with asynchronous replication.
- Offers global regions with anycast networking for low-latency access.
- Future Vision: The company plans to continue building out obvious features like static IPs and advanced UX, while also revisiting fundamental infrastructure like racking servers and network wiring.
The author is building a cloud he genuinely wants to use, hoping it will also prove useful to others who share his vision for a more efficient, flexible, and developer-friendly computing environment.