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Ask HN: Alternatives to AWS?

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Re: Ask HN: Alternatives to AWS?

#11

Post by brudgers »

To me, the alternatives to AWS depend on the workload. For Netflix the alternative is building a chain of massive data centers or negotiating with Microsoft or negotiating with Google. For a Ruby on Rails app, Heroku is one. For someone just monkeying around with Kubernetes, maybe a some Raspberry Pi.

The alternatives also are related to the specific business. For Home Depot, running on AWS means running in a competitor's data center.

The problem of finding and alternative to AWS really boils down to research, and that's a time commitment versus just whipping out the plastic. One might say, "Nobody ever got fired for using AWS."

Re: Ask HN: Alternatives to AWS?

#12

Post by pacala »

bachback wrote: post #9
jburwell wrote: post #2

The following are a few alternatives off the top of my head: * Google Compute Engine * Microsoft Azure * Joyent * IBM BlueMix * Linode (like DigitalOcean more VPS than cloud provider)

Google is not as general as AWS and therefore has serious vendor lockin. Azure only recently has decided to support docker and is not rooted in opensource. The big downside of AWS: to difficult to use for many. It seems to me a new entrant which combines easy of use, embraces opensource, would have a good chance in the market. + Rackspace. But like many these don't come from the cloud market and still think in terms…

> Google is not as general as AWS and therefore has serious vendor lockin.

Presumably you are talking about Google App Engine, which is just a small part of GCP. Amazon's comparable offering is Elastic Beanstalk. The core building blocks on GCP and AWS are the same: raw virtual machines you can build anything upon yourself, GCE vs EC2. GCE has been around since 2012.

Re: Ask HN: Alternatives to AWS?

#13

Post by nik736 »

Depends on what exactly a cloud provider is for you. If it's only about VMs with an API and global footprint there are several options:

- GCE

- SoftLayer (IBM IaaS)

- Azure

And additionally there are several other providers that are more comparable to DigitalOcean like Vultr, Linode, Scaleway, etc.

Re: Ask HN: Alternatives to AWS?

#14

Post by bachback »

nik736 wrote: post #13

Depends on what exactly a cloud provider is for you. If it's only about VMs with an API and global footprint there are several options: - GCE - SoftLayer (IBM IaaS) - Azure And additionally there are several other providers that are more comparable to DigitalOcean like Vultr, Linode, Scaleway, etc.

true. I'm looking for something where I can potentially build the whole IaaS myself on baremetal at some point. Vultr looks great - thanks!

Re: Ask HN: Alternatives to AWS?

#16

Post by toomuchtodo »

bachback wrote: post #10
tf2manu994 wrote: post #3

Maybe not what you wanted but hetzner? Crazy cheap. Support is garbage.

thanks, but I don't think hetzner is cloud based. most hosters still speak about servers as physical machines as in 2005.

Because servers are physical machines. Virtual machines, instances, etc are not servers per se. Servers traditionally == physical node.

Source: 15 years in ops

Re: Ask HN: Alternatives to AWS?

#17

Post by dastbe »

bachback wrote: post #14
nik736 wrote: post #13

Depends on what exactly a cloud provider is for you. If it's only about VMs with an API and global footprint there are several options: - GCE - SoftLayer (IBM IaaS) - Azure And additionally there are several other providers that are more comparable to DigitalOcean like Vultr, Linode, Scaleway, etc.

true. I'm looking for something where I can potentially build the whole IaaS myself on baremetal at some point. Vultr looks great - thanks!

For fun, or for profit? Building IaaS to support your own company is hard enough; building it with the level of isolation and security required to be multitenant is harder still.

Re: Ask HN: Alternatives to AWS?

#18

Post by doozy »

nik736 wrote: post #13

Depends on what exactly a cloud provider is for you. If it's only about VMs with an API and global footprint there are several options: - GCE - SoftLayer (IBM IaaS) - Azure And additionally there are several other providers that are more comparable to DigitalOcean like Vultr, Linode, Scaleway, etc.

iwStack fits the bill too

Re: Ask HN: Alternatives to AWS?

#19

Post by [deleted] »

bachback wrote: post #9
jburwell wrote: post #2

The following are a few alternatives off the top of my head: * Google Compute Engine * Microsoft Azure * Joyent * IBM BlueMix * Linode (like DigitalOcean more VPS than cloud provider)

Google is not as general as AWS and therefore has serious vendor lockin. Azure only recently has decided to support docker and is not rooted in opensource. The big downside of AWS: to difficult to use for many. It seems to me a new entrant which combines easy of use, embraces opensource, would have a good chance in the market. + Rackspace. But like many these don't come from the cloud market and still think in terms…

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: Alternatives to AWS?

#20

Post by user5994461 »

Google has all the exact same offerings as AWS.

The IaaS part is called GCE (Google Compute Engine): https://cloud.google.com/compute/pricing

Given all your comments in this thread. You seem to struggle quite a lot to understand the market and you didn't clarify what you want to achieve (how many servers do you have now? how many applications do you run? how many dev? how big is your company?)

So forgive me for thinking you are either a hobbyist or a newcomer, with rather simple needs. If that's the case, GCE and AWS are overkill. You should stick to Digital Ocean or Linode. It's wayyy simpler and cheaper.

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