Yeah agreed I haven't worked with Google scale companies but I've always found scaling issue to to development related not infrastructure related. So examples would be a bad db query that takes the system down, overly chatting webserver that issues too many queries to the backend, pulling large datasets into the webapp causing exhaustion of memory ...etc. AWS / Azure can't be these issues they have to be fixed in your code.
There is definitely a place for AWS/Azure and their offering of services is fantastic but they are not a silver bullet for scaling your website to millions of active user.
On another point though the vast majority of websites you'll ever build won't have that level of active users. It's a good problem to have though as it means your site is doing really well.
> I've always found scaling issue to to development related not infrastructure related. So examples would be a bad db query that takes the system down, overly chatting webserver that issues too many queries to the backend
This is actually one of the strengths of the cloud, startups that can't afford talent throw compute resources at the problem. Running your own servers isn't hard per se, but it requires a certain breadth of less centrally documented knowledge than the cloud and a willingness to fuss. Developers like that can often command higher prices than most startups pay these days :)
Having someone with good cloud chops is still a difficult ask.
Putting it all on the devs is exactly how you end up in the haveibeenpwned database and on the cover of magazines (for the wrong reasons).
We’ve traded sysadmins for more expensive DevOps. I would love to see a study on if we actually hire less people than if we just did it the old school ways.
There is definitely a place for AWS/Azure and their offering of services is fantastic but they are not a silver bullet for scaling your website to millions of active user.
On another point though the vast majority of websites you'll ever build won't have that level of active users. It's a good problem to have though as it means your site is doing really well.