

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

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.<p>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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Arelius
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.

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canterburry
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.

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Arelius
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.

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canterburry
Got it.

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NameNickHN
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.

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canterburry
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.

