In our environment, we update way more frequently for security updates of dependencies than we do for application updates. These are usually updates to base images.
A couple of gigs is not bad one time. But it's multiplicative, even without updating our application at all, we're transferring: [avg size] * [# of images] * [# of security updates] * [# of nodes]
Given that we are usually able to get small images just by using slim base images, it's a no-brainier for us. No, we don't pull our hair out trying to save a meg, but we're not inheriting Ubuntu as a base image for a 1MB microservice.
By using slimmer images we have fewer security updates to apply as well. Since we usually give security updates some human attention, that's fewer man-hours we have to spend on this too, which is way more expensive than bandwidth.
A couple of gigs is not bad one time. But it's multiplicative, even without updating our application at all, we're transferring: [avg size] * [# of images] * [# of security updates] * [# of nodes]
Given that we are usually able to get small images just by using slim base images, it's a no-brainier for us. No, we don't pull our hair out trying to save a meg, but we're not inheriting Ubuntu as a base image for a 1MB microservice.
By using slimmer images we have fewer security updates to apply as well. Since we usually give security updates some human attention, that's fewer man-hours we have to spend on this too, which is way more expensive than bandwidth.