The backend doing the rendering for the 550 eink calendars that I have sold to far runs on a small, 10-Euro-a-month Hetzner server.
Low operational costs are essential for a hardware business if you don't want to burden your customers with an ongoing subscription fee. Otherwise the business turns into some kind of pyramid scheme where you have to sell more and more units in order to keep serving your existing customers.
I have a moral obligation towards my customers to keep running even if the sales stop at some point.
So I always multiply my cost for anything with 10 years, and then decide if I am willing to bear it. If not, then i find another solution.
Low operational costs are essential for a hardware business if you don't want to burden your customers with an ongoing subscription fee. Otherwise the business turns into some kind of pyramid scheme where you have to sell more and more units in order to keep serving your existing customers.
I have a moral obligation towards my customers to keep running even if the sales stop at some point.
So I always multiply my cost for anything with 10 years, and then decide if I am willing to bear it. If not, then i find another solution.