Top all-time · #1824
Charles Fitzgerald
Personal blog · platformonomics.combusinesseconomics
Charles Fitzgerald writes Platformonomics, a personal blog at platformonomics.com about business and economics. Since 2013, 40 different Hacker News readers have linked it 51 times, most often “Follow the CAPEX: Separating the Clowns from the Clouds”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-10-30, and you can follow it by feed.
Too few sampled comments (10) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
HN readers link Platformonomics, Charles Fitzgerald's blog, for its 'follow the capex' analysis of cloud providers, comparing AWS, Azure, GCP, Oracle and IBM, and for its series of posts on IBM.
- Recommended for · 1 comments
- Described as a series of sobering blog posts about IBM that are worth reading.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 10 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
I’m Charles Fitzgerald and this is my blog. I write infrequent, self-referential, overly parenthetical and verbose posts mostly for my own amusement. Stylistically, think a longform version of Twitter.
Most-linked posts?
- Follow the CAPEX: Separating the Clowns from the Clouds3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2018-05-25
- Follow the Capex: Cloud Table Stakes 2019 Edition3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2020-02-17
- Follow the CAPEX: Cloud Table Stakes2 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2017-04-18
- A Cold Take on IBM, Red Hat and Their Hybrid Cloud2 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2019-07-11
- Who eats who in open source2 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2019-11-25
- /2018/05/follow-the-capex-separating-the-clowns-from-the-clouds/2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2019-10-21
- Dining Preferences of the Cloud and Open Source: Who Eats Who?2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2019-11-23
- Follow the Capex: Clown Watch2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2020-07-16
- The Cloudless Cloud Company2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2021-12-10
- Regulating Facebook: A Proposal2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2019-07-25
What Hacker News says?
Charles Fitzgerald (Platformonomics blog) has a series of sobering blog posts about IBM that are worth reading: https://www.platformonomics.com/tag/ibm/ As for his take on this latest piece of news: https://twitter.com/charlesfitz/status/1314310748835704833?s... > IBM splitting itself up into two companies is kind of like when Netflix proposed to split itself up into its future-oriented streaming business and its dy…
Comment linking /tag/ibm/
on “IBM is splitting itself into two public companies”Submitted IBM's Lost Decade as a story · 217 points
HN discussionIBM and Oracle are really not in the same class as AWS, Azure and GCP, when it comes to investing in cloud infrastructure. They’re bit players at best: http://www.platformonomics.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/cl... From this article: https://www.platformonomics.com/2018/05/follow-the-capex-sep...
Comment linking /2018/05/follow-the-capex-separating-the-clowns-from-the-clouds/
on “Bank of America's CEO says it's saved $2B per year by building its own cloud”Submitted A Cold Take on IBM, Red Hat and Their Hybrid Cloud as a story · 174 points
HN discussionOracle's cloud is an also-ran. Just follow the investment the cloud giants are making. Oracle is not even in the same league. From: https://www.platformonomics.com/2019/02/follow-the-capex-clo... "Google’s incremental CAPEX spend in 2018 is about what cloud pretender Oracle has spent on CAPEX throughout their entire history."
Comment linking /2019/02/follow-the-capex-cloud-table-stakes-2018-edition/
on “2020 Cloud Report: AWS vs. GCP vs. Azure”Submitted Who eats who in open source as a story · 162 points
HN discussionRebranding won't help, unless IBM actually put in the CapEx behind their cloud: https://www.platformonomics.com/2018/05/follow-the-capex-sep...
Comment linking /2018/05/follow-the-capex-separating-the-clowns-from-the-clouds/
on “IBM's Lost Decade”Submitted They Don't Have the Money: OpenAI Edition as a story · 93 points
HN discussionThe scale of oracle cloud is laughable compared to its competitors. http://www.platformonomics.com/2018/05/follow-the-capex-sepa... In terms of value to the taxpayer I think AWS's offering would be head and shoulders above anything else. There would be no quicker way to be fired at amazon than if evidence came out that you were rorting or delivering an inferior product to a customer, behavior thats almost assumed wi…
Comment linking /2018/05/follow-the-capex-separating-the-clowns-from-the-clouds/
on “Tech companies can now bid on the Pentagon’s $10B cloud contract”Submitted Follow the CAPEX: Separating the Clowns from the Clouds as a story · 77 points
HN discussionTheir capex looks to be ~$2-300MM. That's approximately 1% of what AWS spends. https://www.platformonomics.com/2020/02/follow-the-capex-clo...
Comment linking /2020/02/follow-the-capex-cloud-table-stakes-2019-edition/
on “Rackspace S-1”Submitted Follow the CAPEX: Cloud Table Stakes as a story · 46 points
HN discussionBit of a puff piece. For a contrasting view, Dan Lyons (Fake Steve Jobs) has some choice quotes on Benioff excerpted here http://www.platformonomics.com/2016/09/the-spectacle-that-is... “There’s an art to this kind of horseshit, and Benioff is its Michelangelo.”
Comment linking /2016/09/the-spectacle-that-is-dreamforce/
on “Marc Benioff of Salesforce: ‘Are We Not All Connected?’”Submitted A Cold Take on IBM, Red Hat and Their Hybrid Cloud Hyperbole as a story · 14 points
HN discussionHistorically Google far outspent Microsoft on their “super computers”, though in recent years MS has been closing the gap. https://www.platformonomics.com/2022/02/follow-the-capex-clo...
Comment linking /2022/02/follow-the-capex-cloud-table-stakes-2021-retrospective/
on “ChatGPT killer: Google-owned, UK-born AI startup Deepmind is working on a rival”Submitted Follow the Capex: Triangulating Nvidia as a story · 9 points
HN discussionQuite an interesting read. I don't see how growth rate can continue without capital investment and the last research I saw showed AWS with much more investment. http://www.platformonomics.com/2018/05/follow-the-capex-sepa... That said, I do see solid Azure growth. Once people get O365, Azure AD follows and then it's architecturally easier to use other Azure services.
Comment linking /2018/05/follow-the-capex-separating-the-clowns-from-the-clouds/
on “Microsoft Is Smoking Amazon in the Cloud”Submitted IBM: How Much Longer Do the Good Times Last? as a story · 9 points
HN discussionhttps://www.platformonomics.com/2019/07/the-cloud-is-not-fla... https://www.platformonomics.com/2020/12/2020-platformonomics...
Comment linking /2020/12/2020-platformonomics-blog-retrospective/
on “Cloud Wars and Company Wars”Submitted The Cloudless Cloud Company as a story · 5 points
HN discussionSubmitted Follow the CAPEX: Cloud giants Amazon, Microsoft, and Google 2020 comparison as a story · 5 points
HN discussionSubmitted A Cold Take on IBM, Red Hat and Their Hybrid Cloud Hyperbole as a story · 5 points
HN discussionSubmitted A warning to Seattle: Don't become the next Cleveland as a story · 4 points
HN discussionSubmitted Follow the Capex as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted Cloud Capex Retrospective 2023 as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted Slackforce and the Beginning of the End of SaaS Sprawl as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted Who eats who in open source as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted Follow the CAPEX: Cloud Table Stakes as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted AWS and the Bonfire of Amazon's Vanities as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted Follow the Capex: The Clown Car Race Checkered Flag as a story · 2 points
HN discussion
