How I make CI/CD (much) faster and cheaper
a day ago
- CI/CD speed improves developer productivity and enables quicker deployments, reducing the risk of skipping checks during hotfixes.
- Default cloud runners (e.g., GitHub Actions with EPYC 7763) are slow due to outdated CPUs, limited I/O, and high network latency.
- Modern Ryzen CPUs offer up to 2x single-thread performance and 14-35x multi-thread performance over standard runners.
- Bare metal servers (e.g., Hetzner Ryzen 7950X3D for ~$100/month) can run pipelines 2-10x faster without configuration changes.
- Self-hosted bare metal is significantly cheaper than GitHub's larger runners (e.g., $5000+/month for 32-core) and provides better performance.
- CI/CD is an ideal use case for bare metal due to ease of setup, reliability, and cost savings.