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DigitalOcean raises $100M in debt as it scales toward revenue of $300M

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Re: DigitalOcean raises $100M in debt as it scales toward revenue of $300M

#241

Post by Legogris »

dkersten wrote: post #154
raiyu wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You hit the nail on the head, we are best for SMBs and teams that want to get things done quickly and don't need the hyperscale and added complexity of AWS. Our focus has always been on simplicity and as our customer needs and our own internal needs have grown we've added additional products to continue to allow customers to scale with us. We launched with just Droplets in 2012 and have since added block storage, Spa…

What I really wish for is a simple way of running docker containers (like AWS Fargate, or at least ECS), because I want to run docker containers across multiple droplets, but I don't want the full complexity of Kubernetes. Also something akin to auto-scaling groups. If DO had those, I'd use it a whole lot more than I do (currently I only spend use approx. $140/month on DO).

Have you checked out Hashicorp's Nomad?

Re: DigitalOcean raises $100M in debt as it scales toward revenue of $300M

#242

Post by dkersten »

Legogris wrote: post #241
dkersten wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What I really wish for is a simple way of running docker containers (like AWS Fargate, or at least ECS), because I want to run docker containers across multiple droplets, but I don't want the full complexity of Kubernetes. Also something akin to auto-scaling groups. If DO had those, I'd use it a whole lot more than I do (currently I only spend use approx. $140/month on DO).

Have you checked out Hashicorp's Nomad?

Yeah, I quite like the look of it. I’m still scared of actually running it myself though since the master node requirements are a few servers. I guess I need to look into it again.

Re: DigitalOcean raises $100M in debt as it scales toward revenue of $300M

#243

Post by bouk »

dkersten wrote: post #154
raiyu wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You hit the nail on the head, we are best for SMBs and teams that want to get things done quickly and don't need the hyperscale and added complexity of AWS. Our focus has always been on simplicity and as our customer needs and our own internal needs have grown we've added additional products to continue to allow customers to scale with us. We launched with just Droplets in 2012 and have since added block storage, Spa…

What I really wish for is a simple way of running docker containers (like AWS Fargate, or at least ECS), because I want to run docker containers across multiple droplets, but I don't want the full complexity of Kubernetes. Also something akin to auto-scaling groups. If DO had those, I'd use it a whole lot more than I do (currently I only spend use approx. $140/month on DO).

We're working on it.

Re: DigitalOcean raises $100M in debt as it scales toward revenue of $300M

#244

Post by Legogris »

dkersten wrote: post #242
Legogris wrote: post #241

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you checked out Hashicorp's Nomad?

Yeah, I quite like the look of it. I’m still scared of actually running it myself though since the master node requirements are a few servers. I guess I need to look into it again.

Their documented "minimum requirements" are quite ridiculous TBH. I mean, officially Vault requires 6 Consul servers (dedicated to Vault, mind you) to be considered ready for production. I doubt most companies using Vault with Consul follows this.

You I think you could be fine with 3 of the smallest machine types.

Re: DigitalOcean raises $100M in debt as it scales toward revenue of $300M

#245

Post by Rastonbury »

scarface74 wrote: post #170
gruglife wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Regarding point #2, many in the finance world (which I work in) consider cash flow positive a better representation of actual profitability than the actual net profit/loss reported on the P&L. In short, cash flow shows if the actual core business is bringing in money or losing money, while the net profit includes a lot of "noise" (probably not the best word to use but can't think of how to phrase this). For example,…

Not counting depreciation as part of your loss in a business is about like all of the Uber drivers who don’t take into account the wear and tear on their cars when calculating how much money they are making. Depreciation is a real expense. If you depreciate an asset down from $1000 to $0 in 3 years, you’re accounting for the fact that in three years you are going to have to replace it. There is a reason we have GAAP,…

The thing is that depreciation is not a cash expense, companies will push the depreciation to the highest reasonable amount to reduce the amount of tax on their profits.

A commonly used valuation technique (discounted cash flow or DCF) relies on projected free cash flows and adjusting for expected CAPEX.

Re: DigitalOcean raises $100M in debt as it scales toward revenue of $300M

#246

Post by Rastonbury »

nmfisher wrote: post #183
smallgovt wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> Using the word “raise” when talking about financing via debt seems inappropriate and very start-upy. Why would it be inappropriate? It's common to describe both debt and equity rounds as a 'raise'. My guess is you're operating under the assumption that debt is inferior to equity because you're forced to pay it back. But, in reality, when you raise an equity round, you also have to pay back the principal + "interes…

> It's common to describe both debt and equity rounds as a 'raise'. I disagree, I always interpret "raise" as equity. > My guess is you're operating under the assumption that debt is inferior to equity because you're forced to pay it back. But, in reality, when you raise an equity round, you also have to pay back the principal + "interest"-- it just delays the repayment date til your liquidation event. Debt and equit…

"Raising debt" is straightforward and obvious.

No one will read those words and think they are raising equity...

Re: DigitalOcean raises $100M in debt as it scales toward revenue of $300M

#248

Post by dkersten »

Legogris wrote: post #244
dkersten wrote: post #242

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, I quite like the look of it. I’m still scared of actually running it myself though since the master node requirements are a few servers. I guess I need to look into it again.

Their documented "minimum requirements" are quite ridiculous TBH. I mean, officially Vault requires 6 Consul servers (dedicated to Vault, mind you) to be considered ready for production. I doubt most companies using Vault with Consul follows this. You I think you could be fine with 3 of the smallest machine types.

That’s basically what put me off trying nomad. Nit just the minimum number, but also their stated hardware requirements. From their documentation:

Nomad servers may need to be run on large machine instances. We suggest having between 4-8+ cores, 16-32 GB+ of memory, 40-80 GB+ of fast disk and significant network bandwidth

Basically the cost if the Nomad masters would be much greater than the cost of what would run my actual applications. That’s a non-starter for me.

> You I think you could be fine with 3 of the smallest machine types.

Maybe, but if that’s their official stance, it would make me very nervous to run a production system with lower spec machines.

Re: DigitalOcean raises $100M in debt as it scales toward revenue of $300M

#249

Post by dkersten »

bouk wrote: post #243
dkersten wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What I really wish for is a simple way of running docker containers (like AWS Fargate, or at least ECS), because I want to run docker containers across multiple droplets, but I don't want the full complexity of Kubernetes. Also something akin to auto-scaling groups. If DO had those, I'd use it a whole lot more than I do (currently I only spend use approx. $140/month on DO).

We're working on it.

What about hosted kafka or hosted message queues? Are there any plans (even tentative) in that regards? That’s the other missing piece that would make a huge difference to me.

One final question: will spaces support proper static site hosting? There was a ticket about it stating it was planned for Q3 or Q4 last year. but there was no follow up.

Re: DigitalOcean raises $100M in debt as it scales toward revenue of $300M

#250

Post by Havoc »

numbers wrote: post #118
dcchambers wrote: post #87

I have some personal stuff hosted on DO. I really like their options, service, their branding, UX/UI, etc...but they are kind of in a weird spot. Halfway between being good for cheap personal projets, and being good for enterprise. If I want a simple VPS there are cheaper options. If I am an enterprise spending millions/year on cloud infra I am probably only looking at AWS, Azure, GCP, etc. How does DO get out of thi…

I thought their $5/mo machines are the cheapest on the internet for the specs available. Are there cheaper options? I’m hosting a low traffic page that gets maybe 500-1000 views a month and even at $5/mo it seems overkill IMO.

>Are there cheaper options?

Definitely. There is an entire ecosystem of small VPS providers below DO & co.

e.g. I'm currently paying 7 USD for a 4 core w/ 16gig ram. Modern hardware too - Ryzen & NVme.

Trade-off is you need to spend time hunting for once off deals & there is no guarantee the provider will still be around tomorrow & you never know whether it's oversold.

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