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Big Tech ruined the cloud, so we're renaming ours

212 points · 108 comments · 2sf5

  1. bitpush · · focus · HN ↗
    Unless they have their own data centers, they are still hosting it on top of AWS or something.

    I get that they are trying to market this but it is a bit disingenuous.

    1. adrithmetiqa · · focus · HN ↗
      Sadly way overpriced for what you get. You can achieve the same for free with a Cloudflare tunnel. It’s great that this service supports the development of home assistant but the pricing is just silly.
      1. sho_hn · · focus · HN ↗
        I think the "supporting HA development" argument is really not a bad one. HA is so much better than anything else by such a wide margin.
      2. nickspacek · · focus · HN ↗
        I didn't realize Cloudflare also offered:

        - Offsite Backups

        - Voice control (Alexa & Google Home)

        - Voice Processing (STT/TTS)

        - Better media streaming (video/audio)

        In addition to dedicated support, as part of their free Cloudflare tunnels.

        Sorry for being snarky, but given the tone/point of the announcement is anti-big tech it's funny to complain that the pricing is so high compared to big tech.

        Taken on its own, for the price of a nice coffee a month you also support Home Assistant development and get something in exchange. Pretty good value.

        1. wildzzz · · focus · HN ↗
          Cloudflare offers 10GB of free R2 storage. HA has a backup plugin for Cloudflare R2.

          HA already has many plugins for doing voice processing locally or through other cloud providers (freely or cheaply)

          A cloudflare tunnel would also give you direct access to WebRTC streams, just like being at home. HA Cloud just offers relay servers so you don't have to directly connect.

          If you want to give HA money, go ahead but there's nothing truly compelling it offers that I couldn't get elsewhere for much less.

      3. anonreplier · · focus · HN ↗
        £65/year is overpriced? It's this choosing beggars mentality that ends up in projects being abandoned.
      4. qlte · · focus · HN ↗
        I'm happy to subsidize HA development
    2. yurishimo · · focus · HN ↗
      The post mentions bare metal so it’s possible they found a partner to collocate with in a few of the big regions globally.

      Regardless, they also call out that what they offer is only an enhancement and if you use it as the only way to access your smarthome then you are not really using the software as intended.

      We will see in 12 months if the migration was worth it. Nabu Casa is starting to push harder into B2C so we shall see if the product can keep up with the demand.

      1. sho_hn · · focus · HN ↗
        What "migration"? This is just a rename.
        1. wildzzz · · focus · HN ↗
          Article does mention they improved their backend stuff by using bare metal servers so that "you connect to the closest server".
    3. tw04 · · focus · HN ↗
      You’re missing the point entirely. Some other home automation platforms require a cloud/subscription to function at all. It has nothing to do with running on AWS or Azure or insert hyperscaler.

      Link is completely optional and does not affect the functionality of home assistant. You can run completely offline without a subscription of any kind on your own hardware if you so choose.

      I find the downvotes without comment fascinating. Everything I posted was relevant and completely factual. I can only assume it’s people that have literally no idea what home automation is and what cloud is in this context. Cloud doesn’t and has never meant hyperscaler, and where it is hosted is completely irrelevant to the discussion.

    4. micromacrofoot · · focus · HN ↗
      At a glance it looks like they're using OVH servers for the relays, so they're on dedicated bare metal
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