The Germans referred to a Schwerpunkt (focal point and also known as Schwerpunktprinzip or concentration principle) in the planning of operations; it was a center of gravity or point of maximum effort, where a decisive action could be achieved. Ground, mechanised and tactical air forces were concentrated at this point of maximum effort whenever possible. By local success at the Schwerpunkt, a small force achieved a breakthrough and gained advantages by fighting in the enemy's rear. It is summarized by Guderian as “Klotzen, nicht kleckern!” (literally "boulders, not blots" and means "act powerfully, not superficially"). [1]
For a product prototype, the initial primary goal is "get it online so that we can start validating our assumptions". System administration skills and in-house server administration teams are valuable but not necessary.
This is a much more succinct explanation than my own. This is the point I was trying to make.
Even given that I have a good bit of sysadmin skills, I am needed more as a software developer right now in the early goings. I expect, as you've pointed out, that priorities will change with time and growth. We may even move to bare metal eventually, if we find ourselves needing and able to do so.
So to summarize you both: You want a rapid development platform that doubles as a production system and costs nothing to maintain. That does sound useful!
What? Did you read any of what was written? Point-by-point breakdown for you:
> You want a rapid development platform
No, we want low-maintenance infrastructure.
> that doubles as a production system
It is a production system. It does successfully serve many thousands of users for us every day. We've yet to have an outage that wasn't our own fault.
> and costs nothing to maintain
What? I specifically said we're willing to pay more not to have to spend as much time on infrastructure.
It's OK if you're too set in your ways to even attempt to level with alternative points of view, but at least try to read a little more thoroughly. And maybe admit that you're not willing to budge, so nobody wastes time trying to explain an alternative point of view.
I wasn't dismissing your point of view. Heroku is what I described. AWS, to a certain extent, is what I described. And I said it was a production system, too; you didn't have to over-emphasize what I had already said, as if I didn't just say it. "Costs nothing to maintain" is in comparison to paying to maintain it yourself. But thanks for knee-jerking.
For a product prototype, the initial primary goal is "get it online so that we can start validating our assumptions". System administration skills and in-house server administration teams are valuable but not necessary.
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blitzkrieg#Schwerpunkt