Missing step -1: find someone to get on your staff that knows what they are doing, or at least find a contractor with a good history of doing this kind of thing. After a certain point, you really shouldn't wing it. But if you're at that point, you should know if you actually need your own hardware, or if public cloud or other options are good for you. Some need their own, most don't. There's a lot of nuance there that is difficult to express in a short HN comment.
Agreed. It blows my mind a bit that there is a generation of folks that only know Cloud vs Colo. Colo is a walk in the park compared to cloud, assuming you've done basic PC building and networking. Heck, Cloud can be a walk in the park too for most use cases. If you don't have time to learn it yourself over a month or two, there should be folks available to consult. A lot can be brainstormed in an hour.
Cloud has documentation (usually) and can be lather-rinse-repeat as needed. You think it's hard compared to colo?
The "clowns" are annoying as hell in their costs and dominance of CIOs, but there are distinct advantages of experimentation in clouds. Um, as long as it isn't your credit card...
