I do wonder if AWS is just a huge unnecessary rabbit hole. I might be better off just pinging a few things in the death star from time to time from the safety and calm of Digital Ocean.

I've thought it might be worthwhile to spend some time in AWS for the sake of potential future consulting gigs, but yeah in general using AWS stuff as needed from DO is probably how I'd do it. e.g. I would've done that with SES if they hadn't rejected my SES application

Cool… that’s affirming of my sensibilities. I just discovered that many large companies mash up AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, and their own on-prem stuff with a hybrid network. Not news probably to most folks here, but I was surprised at the extent of this approach.

heh hadn't heard of that but I'm sure it's unavoidable past a certain size just from acquisitions/mergers

this post comes to mind: https://www.bitsaboutmoney.com/archive/seeing-like-a-bank/

This is an amazing article.