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Costs that are that out of whack with expectations would usually indicate some very low hanging fruit. If you can save $800/month by adding a couple of database indexes and tweaking your config file, then yeah, it's worth it.

That said, from what Maciej has written in the past, he sounds competent in these things (i.e. has his databases set up for remote replication and failover), so it would seem that the culprit is more likely over-engineering than under.

Well, if we scaled this expense level straight up to a billion impressions, pinboard would be bankrupt instantly.

I think his questions aren't meant to signify an offer expertise but rather say this base level of knowledge and data should be available whether you're on a shared hosting account or run your own Tier IV center. He's not suggesting a rearchitecture, he's just suggesting know the environment. Decisions are wishy-washy without evidence.