DevOps for Startups: Should You Build a Team or Buy a Service?

Your startup is growing. Deploys are manual. Someone SSH'd into production last week to fix a bug. Your AWS bill is a mystery. And your engineers — the ones you're paying to build features — are spending 30% of their time fighting infrastructure fires. You need DevOps. The question is: do you build an in-house team, or buy a service? Let's look at the real numbers, timelines, and tradeoffs. The Startup DevOps Dilemma Every growing startup hits the same wall: Deploys take 45 minutes of manual work "It works on my machine" is a daily phrase Nobody knows how the AWS account is configured Downtime happens, and recovery is heroic instead of routine The AWS bill keeps climbing, but nobody knows why You know you need proper DevOps. The question isn't if — it's how . Path 1: Build In-House Hiring your own DevOps team means recruiting, onboarding, and managing infrastructure engineers full-time. The Real Costs (Year 1) Item Cost Senior DevOps Engineer salary $180,000-$220,000 Benefits (health,