Why do many of the popular US startups and companies have SRE operations specifically in Dublin, Ireland? Many of them are exclusively SRE offices. Some are large, while others are small - in either case, SREs seem to form the majority, not SWEs. I'd like to understand if this is intentional, and if yes, why? E.g. Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Slack, Etsy, Squarespace, Twitter Facebook has some sales-y stuff too (Solutions Eng) and Amazon builds AWS products, but from what I can tell, the 'customer-side' of those are largely in the US while the systems side is in Dublin. What's going on? Or am I seeing patterns where there are none?
It sounds like a purely timezone advantage type of situation. You can interact with clients on either side of the world comfortably within working hours if you’re based out of a GMT-0 location, allowing handoff to/from the western and eastern SREs, respectively, as the day progresses.
Having SREs in TZ 5 hours ahead helps a lot with failover drills
Tax haven
Also support center right? They go hand in hand.
Favorable labor & tax laws, English speaking, 8 hour time zone difference between west coast which helps with 24/7 coverage & handoffs.
The TZ was the bit I was missing. I wonder how much it would affect your career if you worked in such a place - perception, quality of work, etc.