Every tool we use is chosen because it earns its place. No over-engineering. No unnecessary complexity. Here’s exactly how we run production systems.
We use Terraform and Ansible to manage all infrastructure declaratively. That means every server, firewall rule, and DNS record is in version control. Reproducible. Auditable. Recoverable in minutes, not days.
When your infrastructure is code, rebuilding it from scratch after a catastrophic failure takes the same amount of time as a fresh deploy. We’ve tested this.
Terraform handles the “what” — what servers, what sizes, what networking rules. Ansible handles the “how” — how those servers are configured, what software is installed, how services are started.
The result: your infrastructure is documented, consistent across environments, and never depends on one engineer’s memory.
# DigitalOcean Droplet — app server resource "digitalocean_droplet" "app" { name = "sociofi-prod-01" size = "s-2vcpu-4gb" image = "ubuntu-22-04-x64" region = "nyc1" vpc_uuid = digitalocean_vpc.main.id ssh_keys = [var.ssh_key_id] tags = ["production", "app"]} resource "digitalocean_firewall" "app" { name = "sociofi-prod-fw" droplet_ids = [digitalocean_droplet.app.id] inbound_rule { protocol = "tcp" port_range = "443" source_addresses = ["0.0.0.0/0"] }}Every application runs in containers. For most products, Docker Compose on a well-provisioned server is the right answer — simpler to debug, easier to understand. When traffic demands it, we graduate to Kubernetes.
For most clients, a single well-configured node with Docker Compose is simpler and equally reliable. We scale to Kubernetes when your traffic patterns justify it — not before.
Every request to your application passes through four layers of infrastructure before reaching your code. Each layer serves a specific purpose.
Three layers of backup protection, running automatically. Every day. Every week. Across regions on Professional plans and above.
These aren’t optional add-ons. Every server we manage gets all eight of these configurations applied on day one.
Managing infrastructure yourself isn’t free — it costs engineering hours. Here’s what these tasks realistically take per month.
| Task | You manage it | SocioFi Cloud |
|---|---|---|
| IaC Setup | ~12 hrs/month | Included |
| Container Orchestration | ~8 hrs/month | Included |
| SSL Renewal | ~2 hrs/month | Included |
| Security Patching | ~6 hrs/month | Included |
| Backup Management | ~4 hrs/month | Included |
| Monitoring Setup | ~10 hrs/month | Included |
| Scaling Config | ~5 hrs/month | Included |
| Incident Response | On-call rotation required | On-call included |
At a conservative $75/hr engineering rate, the self-managed column above adds up to roughly $3,500/month in hidden labor cost. Our management fee starts at $149/month.
Tell us what you’re running and we’ll set up everything above — on the right provider, at the right scale, for your budget.