I've been trying to start a very similar thing around here (Spain) at first specializing a bit on backups and storage, still working very small as an independent contractor while I keep my daily job (at least for now, I'm testing the waters...).
I don't really totally miss the days where I had to configure multipath storage with barely documented systems ("No, we don't support Suse, Debian, whatever...", "No, you don't pay for the highest support level, you can't access the knowledge base..."), or integrate disparate systems that theoretically were using an open standard but was botched and modified by every vendor (For example DICOM. Nowadays the situation is way better.) or other nightmare situations. Although I miss accessing the lower layers.
But I've been working for years with my employers and clients cloud providers, and I've seen how the bills climb through the roof, and how easy is to make a million-dollar mistake, how difficult (and expensive) is to leave in some cases, and how the money and power is concentrated in a handful of companies, and I've decided that I should work on that situation. Although probably I'll earn less money, as the 'external contractor' situation is not that good in Spain as in some other countries, unless you're very specialized.
But thankfully, the situation is in some cases better than in the 00s: documentation is easier to get, hardware is cheaper to come by and experiment or even use it for business, WAN connections are way cheaper...
I don't really totally miss the days where I had to configure multipath storage with barely documented systems ("No, we don't support Suse, Debian, whatever...", "No, you don't pay for the highest support level, you can't access the knowledge base..."), or integrate disparate systems that theoretically were using an open standard but was botched and modified by every vendor (For example DICOM. Nowadays the situation is way better.) or other nightmare situations. Although I miss accessing the lower layers.
But I've been working for years with my employers and clients cloud providers, and I've seen how the bills climb through the roof, and how easy is to make a million-dollar mistake, how difficult (and expensive) is to leave in some cases, and how the money and power is concentrated in a handful of companies, and I've decided that I should work on that situation. Although probably I'll earn less money, as the 'external contractor' situation is not that good in Spain as in some other countries, unless you're very specialized.
But thankfully, the situation is in some cases better than in the 00s: documentation is easier to get, hardware is cheaper to come by and experiment or even use it for business, WAN connections are way cheaper...