They could, but they didn't and instead they wrote that blog post which, even being generous is still kinda hard to avoid describing as misleading.
I would not have written the post I did if they had presented a multi-node bare-metal cluster or whatever more realistic config.
What do you feel was misleading?
They don't.
And reading the article, they don't seem to understand that.
Erm. I already spelt it out in my original post ?
I'm not going to re-write it, the TL;DR is they are making an Apples and Oranges comparison.
Yes they "saved money" but in no way, shape or form are the two comparable.
The polite way to put is is .... they saved as much money as they did because they made very heavy handed "architectural decisions". "Decisions" that they appear to be unaware of having made.
I agree with the other poster, this is fine for a toy site or sites but low quality manual DR isn't good for production.