I’ve been coding since the early 2000s when we had to set up physical servers in datacenters and install everything from scratch. Back then with just 10-15 servers we needed a full-time person just for OS updates and patches.
My side project gets about 5k requests per minute (uncached) and uses MySQL 8. Right now I’m using DigitalOcean’s managed database which costs me $100/month for 4GB RAM, 2 vCPUs, and 8GB storage.
I’ve been with OVH for years and never had major issues. For $90/month I could get way better specs: Ryzen 5 5600X (6 cores), 64GB RAM (upgradeable to 192GB for $50 more), dual 960GB NVMe SSDs in RAID, and 25Gbps unmetered bandwidth.
Anyone here actually managing their own database servers these days? How much work is involved with keeping everything updated and secure? Is the cost savings worth the extra effort? What tools or processes do you recommend for this kind of setup?
I’m curious about real world experiences comparing self-managed bare metal vs cloud managed solutions.
depends on how comfy you are troubleshooting stuff. i’ve run my own mysql servers for years - it’s pretty manageable after setup. you’ll need solid backups and monitoring tho. those ovh specs are crazy good for the price. 64gb vs 4gb ram? huge performance diff. set up a test env first to learn the routine and make sure your backup strategy is bulletproof before going live.
Switched from AWS RDS to self-managed MySQL on dedicated hardware 18 months ago - wish I’d done it sooner. The maintenance isn’t as scary as everyone says if you set it up right. I run automated backups with mysqldump and binary logs, OS updates through unattended-upgrades, and Prometheus monitoring. Takes maybe 2-3 hours a month of actual work. Just get your monitoring dialed in so you catch problems early. Your OVH box will crush 5k requests per minute. That 64GB RAM lets you cache everything in memory - way better performance than any 4GB managed instance. Biggest win was setting up replication with a hot standby. Sure, managed services do automatic failover, but controlling the hardware means I can tune everything for my specific workload. Just nail down your backup process and test disaster recovery often.
Been there multiple times. Those OVH specs look tempting, but it’s not just about updates and patches anymore.
You’ll burn way more time than expected on monitoring, backup checks, failover testing, and random 3am crashes that managed services handle. Even with automation, you’re still the one getting woken up.
What works better? Automate the decision-making itself. Build workflows that watch your database performance and costs, then automatically scale or switch providers based on actual usage.
For 5k requests per minute, create automation that monitors DigitalOcean pricing vs performance, spins up OVH instances when load spikes justify it, and handles database migrations seamlessly. You get cost savings without manual server babysitting.
I’ve built this for several projects where automation handles everything - provisioning, backups, scaling decisions. Better reliability than either approach alone and saves more money long-term.
Latenode makes multi-cloud automation straightforward. Set up the whole workflow without writing custom scripts for each provider’s API.
Switched from managed MySQL to bare metal three years ago - there’s a learning curve nobody mentions. That OVH setup will crush your workload no problem. But here’s what blindsided me: security hardening is way more work than you’d think. You’re not just patching MySQL anymore. Now you’re juggling firewall rules, SSH access, SSL certs, and fighting off daily intrusion attempts. I burn an hour every week just on security logs. Performance boost is legit though - query times dropped 40% when I moved from managed to dedicated hardware with decent RAM. Start with a dev replica on OVH first. Get used to the operational headaches, then move production once you’ve got your processes down. Cost savings are worth it if you don’t mind the upfront time investment.
You’re overthinking the managed vs self-hosted choice. Just automate the whole operational layer instead.
I’ve watched teams burn months manually setting up monitoring, backups, and security protocols. Then they’re debugging failed failovers on weekends.
Here’s what actually works: build automation that handles everything. Database health checks, multi-location backups, security patches, performance tuning, spinning up hot standbys when needed.
With 5k requests per minute, you can create workflows that auto-provision that OVH beast during traffic spikes, handle data migration, manage SSL renewals, and switch back to managed services when usage drops.
Don’t pick one approach - automate the choice based on real metrics. Let your system watch costs, performance, and load patterns, then make infrastructure decisions for you.
You get those killer OVH specs when needed without babysitting servers at 3am. Latenode handles orchestration between providers without custom API scripts.