Hosters verkopen hout, klanten willen meubels - Bert Hubert's writings
2 days ago
- Hosters (traditional hosting companies) sell raw server capacity ('hout'), but modern cloud-native developers need ready-made services ('meubels') like identity management.
- Cloud-native programmers cannot work with virtual servers alone; they require high-level services such as AWS Cognito, Azure AD B2C, or Google Identity Platform for user sign-up and secure login.
- Building such authentication services in-house is difficult and often incomplete, while cloud providers offer robust, ready-to-use solutions at a potentially higher cost.
- Dutch hosters often advertise as 'cloud' providers but only offer raw infrastructure, creating a gap between what they sell and what developers need.
- The author urges hosters to understand the cloud-native ecosystem and either build high-level services collaboratively or stop claiming to be full alternatives to AWS/Azure/Google.
- European companies, especially those good at hosting (servers and bandwidth), should cooperate to develop their own high-level cloud services rather than relying solely on American providers.