The article discusses the pros and cons of self-hosted vs self-managed cloud development environments (CDEs). It explains that while CDEs are crucial for software development, managing them can be complex and time-consuming. The author shares their experience with a self-managed offering, which led to significant challenges and eventually its discontinuation. They suggest that the ideal solution is a self-hosted but vendor-managed model, where customers retain control over infrastructure while offloading operational responsibilities to the vendor. This approach has been adopted by several companies and received positive feedback for its ease of installation and reduced operational overhead. The author encourages organizations to consider this middle ground when implementing CDEs in their development processes.