I'd say Amazon is a lot easier to configure than real hardware, even if you've never used it before. Just use some web admin front-end like Rightscale, and premade images with Ubuntu, Centos, or whatever you like.
Ask HN: AWS or dedicated server?
41–43 of 43 posts
Re: Ask HN: AWS or dedicated server?
#42From the AWS blog: "CloudFront Management Tool Roundup": http://aws.typepad.com/aws/2009/01/cloudfront-management-too...
Re: Ask HN: AWS or dedicated server?
#43AWS, no hesitation. AWS isn't that hard to configure. ElasticFox puts a nice GUI to it and while it will take a short while to get used to the AWS way of doing things, you're better off. With AWS, you have a nice spray files everywhere storage in S3, EC2 provides lots of RAM and CPU muscle, EBS provides RAID-level reliable persistent storage for EC2 that can be backed up to multiple data centers with a single API cal…
OK, I'm sold on the ease of use. However, I'm looking to host a SAAS application that requires a separate database for each subscribed client. How does AWS handle the isolation and privacy of the database(s) - so that the likelihood of one of our clients accessing another client's data (even accidentally) is minimized, and access from outside our framework (our support or clients)? There's also the issue of minimizing downtime in the event of a restore request to a specific client - so not all clients are affected. Finally, we have health care and public sector clients who have very stringent data protection and privacy policies and issues. Does that kind of protection exist in AWS, or any shared environment, or does it require a dedicated solution?