By: Ami Aharonovich, Aerospike GM in Israel
Every journey, short or long as it may be, must begin at a certain point. Making the right decisions at the beginning of the journey can greatly influence the continuation of the journey and its odds of success. Alternatively, incorrect decision-making can be fatal to the continuation of the journey and its success. This general statement works even harder when it comes to startups. Decisions at the beginning - from the target market, through product characterization to the technological infrastructure - are dramatic and very significant for the startup's chances of success.
Now, let's focus on the technology issues that accompany every startup in its first steps. Which technology to choose? What infrastructure? Local or cloud? And if it's a cloud - then which cloud provider to choose? And how to save the information? Which database platform to choose? These and many other decisions need to be made in the beginning, when many parameters are not clear enough and sometimes not even known at all.
Do we have a way to make sure we make the right choice? What are the most important parameters to consider when making decisions on these issues? The goal is to make choices that will allow the company to grow without producing growth pains or heavy costs later, preserving the infrastructure or replacing it if the decisions at the beginning were not good. Here are the four critical parameters in choosing startup technologies:
Technological reliability
A reliable and proven technology, one that has enough examples and proven uses in the world, in use cases that are like those we come to develop. It is important to make sure that there is enough proven knowledge and experience in the field in which our startup deals, the clearer and better the knowledge and experience in the market, the greater our chance of succeeding with the chosen technology as there are enough examples.
Performance
That will suit the requirements of the product and application being developed. For example, if an app needs to demonstrate real-time performance and support ultra-fast response times, access, and use from mobile devices, it is advisable to opt for proven technologies in these worlds, which allow for performance and availability as required. These are usually technologies that can withstand the SLA of particle seconds, milli-second and sometimes even micro-second.
Scalability
A critical parameter that is especially important for the ability to succeed when the solution being developed reaches growth. Choosing a technology that is incapable of growth, and that cannot meet the need for accelerated growth, can significantly disrupt a startup's growth ability, add high costs, increase complexity and be a significant impediment to a startup's ability to grow rapidly and even cause painful failure and loss.
Costs
In many cases, choosing reliable and proven technology, whose performance and ability to grow are satisfied. However, as the requirements increase, whether it is performance requirements or scale growth requirements, the costs increase accordingly. It may be additional costs such as computing resources, additional manpower associated with an increase in the amount of computing and the level of complexity of the technology chosen. It is important to pay close attention to the total cost of the technology chosen and to consider all the associated costs that can come from licensing, hardware, maintenance and manpower costs. Weighing all the parameters related to costs in the right way and at the right time, can help a lot and be critical to the success of a startup and its ability to return a high return on investment.
There are many other parameters worth noting, such as ease and speed of development or quality of support, but the four parameters we addressed are the most critical and have the greatest degree of impact on the success of building a startup's technological infrastructure. Importantly, no decision is fatal. It is possible to change and repair, but these changes can be particularly costly - in economic, human and mental costs. When the startup journey is so difficult and expensive, it is worth making informed decisions at every stage of the process, in order to increase the chances, even so low, of success.
