Cool to hear on the savings.
But now the team has to maintain two different deployment models, so you have account for the ongoing cost that your team now has to own and maintain two different processes of deployment (prod & staging).
The key element here is the need to continuously exercise both processes (Heroku + your staging server), to work out both processes & maintain familiarity on both.
Depending on the amount of staff involved in the above, it might eclipse the compute savings, but only OP knows those details. I'm sure they are a smart bunch.
I'll answer the technical & philosophical, technical to address your clutter question.
I have it setup to automatically backup from my phone to a NAS. Then the NAS backs up routinely to Backblaze.
It's all automated, I don't even think about it. And it gives me great piece of mind, so it doesn't feel like clutter or a burden.
I routinely cleanup the photos from my phone, but even then, some photos I really like and I keep them on my phone. I try to keep at least a couple of photos from each 'memorable' moment I've captured, to look when I feel like it.
Keeping some photos on my phone helps when impromptu, in a conversation, you want to show something, e.g. Chatting with a barber recently, he asked about my summer and told him about a vacation I took, he was intrigued by some places I described, so he asked if I had some pics, I showed him the few I had on my phone from that.
Many photos I take, I won't keep on my phone because they go to the NAS and I clear them from my phone, but every once in a while, I open the folder in my NAS and it's cool to see and remember all those moments. That 'feel good' increases with time, so I expect the older I get, these will be more valuable. I don't do photos only, I also sometimes record a conversation with a loved one, just because I know one day they won't be there and I'd like to capture their voice.
Recently an aunt was telling me about a prank/revenge thing she did to an ex of her when she was a teenager, I was in tears laughing, and recorded that secretly. In a few years, when she's no longer with us, I'll be damn glad to have captured that and revisit that memory.
There's 2 things to consider:
1) Do you want to pursue legally -now- ? It will take time and money, if you are without a salary, balance the effort required versus prioritizing finding another job. You can always get a new job first, and only then explore if you can recoup the money
2) As lathiat said, the legal options are context dependent, factors are: where you live, where the company is registered and operating, etc.
Technically you can mix & match as long as they are of the same capacity. Some NAS appliances might not like that tho.
But a way around what you mention, keeping it to a single manufacturer: is to buy the drives from different retailers, hopefully geographically dispersed, a few weeks apart, to ensure you get drives from different manufacturing batches.
Unless there's a systemic issue with the entire product line (unlikely to go unnoticed) you spread out the risk of a single bad batch that way.
Maybe overkill, but that's what I did many years ago.
Hey! You know what they say, the grass always seems greener on the other side.
It sounds like you've got a lot on your plate right now, and I'm really sorry to hear that you're going through a tough time. It's natural to feel overwhelmed and anxious in such situations.
Have you thought about talking to a professional about your concerns? You can easily access online consultations with psychologists through platforms like BetterHelp, or even visit one in person.
It's true that the world is a bit crazy these days, and it's not just the U.S. While it's normal to feel like hitting the panic button, remember that every place has its own set of challenges.
We could chat about moving countries, like taxes, immigration, logistics, and job markets, but that won't address your immediate concerns. Realistically, it's unlikely you can just move to another country permanently.
This seems more like a life challenge than just a relocating issue. Having a professional listen to you and provide feedback could be really helpful, as they're equipped to handle these kinds of situations, unlike the HN crowd including me.
If a company is hiring someone/a company in LATAM, they'll expect to pay LATAM level wages, which are considerably lower than $80k USD.
The numbers I'm aware of, put the highest paid employees in LATAM at around half your expectations (of course, it's very country dependent).
Entering a foreign country with the intention of self-employment usually requires a work-visa. You'll need to sort that out.
Opening a company in that country will likely require proof that you are authorized to be self-employed.
Even if you open the company in Europe, but do the work in LATAM will likely pose tax obligations from the country in LATAM as you'll be (likely) residing there.
I think that's the biggest hurdle you'll have to sort out, and what I'd focus on first.
I expect it to be difficult, but could be worth it! Good luck!
Short answer: graphics, machine learning, and file caching (which the OS does automatically for you).
Long(er) answer: For the most part, the entire system benefits from it.
Across the stack you get a boost because of file caching, and the boost it gives to I/O dependent subsystems which make the entire system faster.
e.g. you don't need to use machine learning explicitly to benefit from it, macOS uses it heavily for some operations (e.g. text identification when you open an image on preview).
Sorry it's a vague answer, but the nuances of the benefit are highly dependent on the workload.
The key element here is the need to continuously exercise both processes (Heroku + your staging server), to work out both processes & maintain familiarity on both.
Depending on the amount of staff involved in the above, it might eclipse the compute savings, but only OP knows those details. I'm sure they are a smart bunch.