Canadian alternatives to Big Tech
I recently stumbled across a post in the c/Europe community (https://lemmy.world/post/24641691) that highlighted alternatives to software and infrastructure from Big Tech companies. This got me thinking - is there a similar resource available for Canadians, or would there be interest in creating one?
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Self hosting is a viable option, if not difficult. This is also an opportunity to start Canadian-oriented services.
An interesting caveat I've found for self-hosting is that getting server hardware in Canada is harder now that several companies, most notably NewEgg, have decided that any equipment that might have a business use case requires a business account and license, meanwhile Americans can still buy things like rackmount hardware no issues.
You can still get rackmount stuff on Amazon, but fuck Bezos. I'd like a better option. I've found some places like AVADirect that will ship to Canada, but not any Canadian businesses that sell that stuff to normal Canadians.
That would be an interesting list.
If you're okay with older homelab-esque equipment, the ERA, also on eBay as Calgary Computer Wholesale, often has really cheap rack mount stuff. This being said, the ERA is a pretty sketchy organization overall (it's closer to a small e-waste recycling business that takes advantage of its status to reduce liable taxes (with variable employee salaries equivalent to dividends) and take advantage of free volunteer labour, than an actual non-profit organization). Sometimes, provincial government surplus auction sites have rack mount equipment as well.
You can also check mouser electronics (mouser.ca)
Not sure if you need a business account for some of the products, but I definitively know people ordering from there. Some may have a "fake" business account though.
This may not be a popular position, but stay with me: most companies don't need big servers.
I've been working in this industry for 25 years, and in my experience, nearly every company I've worked with could have hosted all of their internal and external services on consumer hardware and even a cluster of low-power devices like the Raspberry Pi.
The real limiter isn't hardware, but network access. You can have a massive k8s cluster in your office, but if your network provider flakes out, your business goes away.
So, I would argue that what we really need is colocated network hubs all over the world capable of hosting cheap hardware. Mythic Beasts here in the UK does stuff like this for example, to get effect.