Chapter 9. Managing growth
Deciding to launch a new project without a clear idea of how much it’s going to cost you is like ... well, it’s dumb. Don’t do it.
Sure, using a website to promote your new business rather than traditional print and media advertising does free you from paying for some expensive stuff, but that doesn’t mean it’s free. Yes, if you host your project in the AWS cloud, you won’t have to purchase any big, bad servers and the hardware needed to support them; but that doesn’t mean Amazon—out of the goodness of its heart—isn’t interested in billing you. Rather, the cost burden is shifted from capex to opex.
Capex vs. opex
Capex stands for capital expenses: up-front stuff like new buildings and servers that may require years of revenue to cover the costs of investment. Pure cloud deployments require none of those. Opex (operating expenses), on the other hand, refers to ongoing costs like equipment rentals and salaries. Pure cloud deployments can have lots of those.