Re: Sustainable funding and maintenance for our infrastructure

[Simon Tournier <zimon.toutoune@gmail.com>]

Hi,

On Tue, 02 Jul 2024 at 16:24, Ludovic Courtès <ludo@gnu.org> wrote:

>                           The reason for this discussion is that we were
> thinking that we should not take our existing build farms for granted
> and be prepared for the future.

Could you explain the rationale?  I understand and fully agree that
sustainable funding and maintenance for infrastructure are key topics
for the project.  Do we need to move ci.guix soon?  Related to Ricardo
announcement [1]?

Well, I am missing some context or steps.  Currently, the project is
mainly in Option #3 (sponsored).  The main sponsor is MDC located in
Berlin.  The second sponsor is personal funds coupled to hardware bought
by us or donated to us – I have in mind the build farm behind the name
Bordeaux; thanks Chris! And the third sponsor – at some extent – is
Inria located in Bordeaux.

We had discussions about reinforcing the second sponsor by replacing
personal funds by project-wide funds, say Guix Foundation, community,
etc.

Is this description correct?


> The various options and back-of-the-envelope estimates we came up with
> are as follows:
>
>   1. Buying and hosting hardware:
>       250k€ for hardware
>       3k€/month (36k€/year)
>
>   2. Renting machines (e.g., on Hetzner):
>       6k€/month (72k€/year)
>
>   3. Sponsored:
>       get hardware and/or hosting sponsored (by academic institutions or
>       companies).

Well, on the paper, option #1 appears to me appealing but how do we get
this 250k€?  Somehow, 250k€ would mean being able to secure 3k€/month
for over almost 7 years, right?

Except if we have a large donation that I am not aware, I do not see how
it would be possible to sign in being sure to secure 3k€/month for over
almost 7 years; considering the project has 12 years.

Other said, option #1 does not appear to me an option.

Option #2 could be a temporary option for a short time.  But again,
that’s something.


> Option #3 potentially gives less control (depending on the project’s
> relation with the hosting organization) and makes the project dependent
> on the sponsor and/or person(s) in touch with them.  On the upside, it
> could significantly reduce costs (potentially to 0€).

It remains option #3. :-)

For me, that’s the only viable option at scale.  The main costs should
be covered by sponsor as academical ones.  From my point of view, the
only sustainable option is to group people behind GuixHPC (I recall the
domain name hpc.guix.info is paid by Guix Foundation ;-)) and ask: a) if
their institutions are ready to donate and/or a) if we could run for
some grants altogether.

Somehow, Guix starts to be run in various scientific data centers and we
could take advantage of this opportunity.

Indeed, it locks in some relation with the hosting organizations and/or
the person in touch with them.  That’s said, Ricardo showed it works
well – or at least it can. :-) The key appears to me to not put all the
eggs in the same basket.

That’s my half-baked current opinion.  WDYT?

Cheers,
simon


1: I'm retiring (for a while); help needed
Ricardo Wurmus <rekado@elephly.net>
Fri, 31 May 2024 08:08:15 +0200
id:87o78mldio.fsf@elephly.net
https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/guix-devel/2024-05
https://yhetil.org/guix/87o78mldio.fsf@elephly.net