CloudatCost First Impressions
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So our first CloudatCost servers are in the process of spinning up. So as I work with them I wanted to share some of my first impressions.
The first thing is, of course, the cost. These things are super cheap. Anyone can afford to get one and try it out. These are going to be perfect for IT pros to have test servers, educational machines, etc. If you don't have your own server(s) yet, go get one or two right now.
The second thing is that this is really not traditional cloud. This is an advanced cloud-ish VPS system, which is actually what the SMB market exactly needs. Traditional cloud is completely lost on the SMB market, we don't use APIs or automatically provision servers. It makes no sense in the SMB. But the traditional cloud providers like Amazon, Rackspace, Softlayer and Azure aren't designed around non-cloud needs leaving their offerings very hard for SMBs to use with too much risk, complication and overhead.
The biggest factor here is that CloudatCost comes with console access!! I cannot, possibly explain what a big deal this is. The recent removal of consoles from all of the main cloud providers makes sense in the pure DevOps / true cloud computing space, but it is devastating to the one by one, snowflake systems administration model of SMBs and SMEs. Being unable to see the console meant that lots of traditional software cannot even be installed on true clouds. This lets system admins work the way that they are used to working.
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Currently I have five CentOS 7 systems and one CentOS 6.5 system up and running. For anyone who is interested.
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I'd LOVE to give this a shot!
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Running system updates on the first system now.
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@scottalanmiller said:
Running system updates on the first system now.
I sent a message to @AmanBhogal .
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I have been going over the specs and the OS offereings and wondering what I would use one for.. Both personally and maybe at the office.
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@g.jacobse said:
I have been going over the specs and the OS offereings and wondering what I would use one for.. Both personally and maybe at the office.
Anything that you need a hosted server for. Remote storage, ownCloud, back up AD, off site backups, web server, application server, etc.
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@scottalanmiller said:
@g.jacobse said:
I have been going over the specs and the OS offereings and wondering what I would use one for.. Both personally and maybe at the office.
Anything that you need a hosted server for. Remote storage, ownCloud, back up AD, off site backups, web server, application server, etc.
Gonna move my AD to the cloud.
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Note that Windows is not included with the installation. You have to provide your own licensing. That's why there is no price increase for Windows instances like there is for all other cloud providers which include the license in the price. They all require a price premium per hour to cover the extra licensing cost.
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@scottalanmiller said:
Note that Windows is not included with the installation. You have to provide your own licensing. That's why there is no price increase for Windows instances like there is for all other cloud providers which include the license in the price. They all require a price premium per hour to cover the extra licensing cost.
I'm fine with that. I can cover the licensing, and if it saves me money to just use what I already have, I'm fine with that.
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Yes, you can just apply your existing license.
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@scottalanmiller said:
@g.jacobse said:
I have been going over the specs and the OS offereings and wondering what I would use one for.. Both personally and maybe at the office.
Anything that you need a hosted server for. Remote storage, ownCloud, back up AD, off site backups, web server, application server, etc.
Interesting.. This maybe what I am in need of for DR and existing remote users to start up AD and such....
Interested in another article? There's a topic.
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What of additional drive space . are you limited to the plan specs?
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Additionally - what of encryption / VPN.
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@scottalanmiller What are your ping times to various regions of the US? I want to stick a PBX on one of these as a trial.
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@g.jacobse said:
What of additional drive space . are you limited to the plan specs?
There are external storage options.
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@g.jacobse said:
Additionally - what of encryption / VPN.
Just install your own of either. That's not something that comes from your VPS host, you just install whatever software you want.
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@JaredBusch said:
@scottalanmiller What are your ping times to various regions of the US? I want to stick a PBX on one of these as a trial.
We plan to do that too.
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@JaredBusch said:
@scottalanmiller What are your ping times to various regions of the US? I want to stick a PBX on one of these as a trial.
Our primary web server is pinging between 4.5ms and 5.5ms. So that one is very good.
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Pretty consistent 20ms to the IAD Virginia datacenter.
