Ask HN: Would you entrust your entire build process to a SaaS? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Would you entrust your entire build process to a SaaS?

1 pointcanterburry6 comments

Think end to end from source control, code review, build and CI, versioning to deployment management? This means the SaaS being aware of server passwords in order to deploy the code, all build properties, the code itself etc.

Most of us probably have a hacked together suite of all the above in-house. Would you, or do you already, use a cloud provider for this?

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I would never trust the fundamentals of my source control, or build system to a SAAS. I could see putting the actual builds, and the primary source control in SAAS, but if I don't know that I can make a build when shit hits the fan, and the service goes down, even with a lot of work, then that's a no-go.

In other words, combine with my build and source control system, but don't force me into a proprietary build system which I have no migration path off of, if you go belly-up.

The interesting thing is, I see the above components being offered separately, but I haven't seen anyone really combine them yet. So, seems like you too are willing to offload some components but not the entire thing...which may explain why I haven't found an end to end service out there.

Sorry, you are mistaken. I'd have interest to offload the entire thing. End-to-end. But only so much as it work with industry standard source control/build scripts/etc. I don't want to be stuck should we choose to change our mind.

Got it.

I think the question is of a more general manner. Would you entrust tasks of very high importance to a SaaS? It's a question of availability and reliability. A company could start with one part of the process. It can gain trust and add more features. At the end there will be the whole package available. It should be possible for the client, though, to only use parts of the package, if they want to keep some independence.

In this particular case I was wondering about the build process specifically. But my root concern is what you highlight, it's a very core process which can really grind a company to a standstill if it fails.

Also I am wondering whether something fully integrated offers sufficient value or whether home assembled systems are superior in people's minds.

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