Table of Contents
Decision-to-value timeline for self-hosted AI matters for executive buy-in. Realistic answer: ~4 weeks to production-grade serving; ~6-8 weeks to measurable cost saving vs hosted API. Plan accordingly.
Week 1-2: provision + deploy + eval baseline. Week 3-4: production cutover with feature flag. Week 5-8: full traffic on self-hosted; measurable cost saving accruing. Month 3+: continuous improvement (eval drift, feature additions, fine-tunes). ~4 weeks to production; ~8 weeks to demonstrated savings.
Timeline
- Week 1-2: provision GPU + install vLLM + serve test workloads + build eval harness baseline
- Week 3-4: production-grade observability + nginx + auth + soak test + canary deploy
- Week 5-6: ramp to full traffic; monitor; iterate on issues
- Week 7-8: cost saving demonstrably accruing on monthly bills
- Month 3+: continuous improvement (eval, fine-tunes, optimisations)
Milestones
- Day 5: vLLM serving test workload
- Day 14: eval harness running in CI
- Day 21: production canary at 5%
- Day 35: full traffic on self-hosted
- Day 56: monthly cost report shows saving
- Day 90: continuous improvement steady-state
Verdict
Self-hosted AI value timeline is bounded and predictable. ~4 weeks to production; ~8 weeks to demonstrable savings; 90 days to steady-state. Set executive expectations appropriately; report milestones; demonstrate cost saving against monthly bills. Standard transformation timeline for AI infrastructure work.
Bottom line
4 weeks to production; 8 weeks to savings. See migration.
