My question isn't why do it yourself. A quick back of the envelope math shows AWS being much more expensive. My question is why San Francisco? It's one of the most expensive real estate markets in the US (#2 residential, #1 commercial), and electricity is expensive. $0.71/KwH peak residential rate! A jaunt down 280 to San Jose's gonna be cheaper, at the expense of. having to take that drive to get hands on. But I'm sure you can find someone who's capable of running a DC that lives in San Jose and needs a job so the SF team doesn't have to commute down to South Bay. Now obviously there's something to be said for having the rack in the office, I know of at least two (three, now) in San Francisco, it just seems like a weird decision if you're already worrying about money to the point of not using AWS.