# Column: Cloud-Exit

LLMS index: [llms.txt](/en/llms.txt)

---

<div style="text-align: center;"><p>
People praise the cloud as carefree, with managed services easing every pain.<br/>
I say clouds are pig-butchering schemes, hundredfold markups with smug disdain.<br/>
Cyber landlords hold monopolies, hike the price, extract your vein.<br/>
They outsource ops, freeload on OSS, rent you servers, rebrand the game.<br/>
Everyone rushes to the cloud, burning cash like pouring rain.<br/>
Sky-high rentals can’t be borne; self-hosted OSS is still the sane.<br/>
Downcloud pioneers clear the way, shouldering doubt and market strain.<br/>
They see through fog to mountain tops because they walk the edge in pain.
</p></div><br>

“Cloud-first” became dogma; many developers only see through that lens. These essays use data and firsthand experience to explain both the value and the traps of public-cloud rentals—practical references in this era of “do more with less.”

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## Downcloud Case Studies

- [DHH: Leaving the cloud saved us an extra $100M](https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/mknFXO5DSfxw7st8hhxjBQ)
- [Downcloud Odyssey: Is it time to leave the cloud?](https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/CicctyvV1xk5B-AsKfzPjw)
- [Don’t worship complexity—self-hosting can stay stable](https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/yIVal-9U6_TXX-dZpVtjBg)
- [Six months, a million saved: DHH’s downcloud FAQ](https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/xaa079P4DRCz0hzNovGoOA)
- [Ahrefs saves $400M by staying off cloud](https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/csQmMrSGg5ukDgS06h8xXw)
- [A sloppy show: Alibaba-Cloud RDS meltdown](https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/kOIw8uPjZUZ0-QisC1TBOA)
- [Paying to suffer: Escaping the Myawaddy of cloud](https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/zwJ2T2Vh_R7xD8IKPso31Q)

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## When Things Explode

- [Lessons from Alibaba-Cloud’s epic outage](https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/OIlR0rolEQff9YfCpj3wIQ)
- [Tencent Cloud: clown car with no face left](https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/PgduTGIvWSUgHZhVfnb7Bg)
- [Dark forest: nuke an AWS bill with just an S3 bucket name](https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/35ScjtPjC1GNGKaSArJhcA)
- [No-equals delete: Google Cloud wiped a fund’s entire account](https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/eH5HBbL7cQhjQY8rm1gFLQ)
- [Global Windows bluescreen: both sides were clown brigades](https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/s7i7bSYzNY8mrcpfkHPjOg)

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## Core Resources

- [Real cost of cloud compute](https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/rp8Dtvyo9cItBJSsvfrKjw)
- [Object storage: from discounts to pig butchering](https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/HathxpQ_KUuqxyrtyCDzWw)
- [Is cloud storage a pig-butchering scam?](https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/UxjiUBTpb1pRUfGtR9V3ag)
- [Is a cloud database just a tax on IQ?](https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/LefEAXTcBH-KBJNhXNoc7A)
- [Garbage Tencent Cloud CDN: from hello world to rage quit](https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/ANFnbDXwuhKI99fgYRZ9ug)
- [Alibaba DCDN: 32 seconds, ¥1,600 bill](https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/0Wnv1B80Tk4J03X3uAm4Ww)

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## Business Models

- [Will DBAs be replaced by the cloud?](https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/W1hwbl3qmjC4Dcmadc8uSg)
- [FinOps ends with leaving the cloud](https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/Yp_PU8nmyK-NVq0clD98RQ)
- [Why haven’t domestic clouds dug up “sand money” yet?](https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/2w0bLJI7TvUNp1tzLYbvsA)
- [Are cloud SLAs comfort blankets?](https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/LC5jAhuVObRcrTLxI1FUQA)
- [Paradigm shift: from cloud-first to local-first](https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/Yp6L0hh4b4HuJQRPD3aJYw)

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## RDS Critiques

- [Are cloud databases pig-butchering schemes?](https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/LefEAXTcBH-KBJNhXNoc7A)
- [Myth of HA/DR](https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/rXwEayprvDKCgba4m-naoQ)
- [Cloud RDS amputated PostgreSQL’s soul](https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/EH7RPB6ImfMHXhOMU7P5Qg)
- [Cloud RDS: from dropping tables to skipping town](https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/AGEW1iHQkQy4NQyYC2GonQ)
- [Rebuttal: “Why you shouldn’t hire DBAs (again)”](https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/CMRrqI2yBWlNbACHpNgL1g)

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## Satire & Portraits

- [Sexologists, chemists, and software BS artists](https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/qAnEmtLz3EpSophz1TbFGA)
- [Toothpaste cloud? Stop praising vendors](https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/XZqe4tbJ9lgf8a6PWj7vjw)
- [Internet tech master crash course](https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/8ZffsCgchv8LH5ujv0lRGQ)
- [Clown crews behind Internet outages](https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/OxhhJ4U1P43di_eaE1uGPw)
- [How cloud vendors see customers: broke, bored, needy](https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/y9IradwxTxOsUGcOHia1XQ)

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## Business Commentary

- [Alibaba-Cloud’s price cuts reek of desperation](https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/BYu8nZjqAQbWc2yT8K_pFQ)
- [How state-owned IT views commercial clouds](https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/qSTEf9txjHNTHeEFv3NkWg)
- [Alibaba-Cloud stuck outside the door](https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/1dse1KSCq2xG-QaL1JzZ8Q)
- [What do cloud vendors actually sell?](https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/_ijL2OXAQJQrmWiE-KKzdw)
- [Are Tencent/Ali really doing “cloud computing”?](https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/mMvDiTiMOt6eiTTYbHvbbQ)

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## Case feeds (excerpt)

**Downcloud Diary** and vendor-specific timelines follow—Alibaba, Tencent, Cloudflare, Google, Microsoft, OCI, etc. See the original Chinese links for the full list of incident and analysis posts.