DigitalOcean Raises $37.2M From Andreessen Horowitz to Take on AWS
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Re: DigitalOcean Raises $37.2M From Andreessen Horowitz to Take on AWS
#2I really like these guys. It's really no-nonsense hosting, which as a developer, is exactly what I need.
I've been (stupidly) running my website, VPN, and e-mail servers all on a single EC2 instance, mostly because I had a bunch of AWS credits. I got some Google Cloud credits, so decided to move it there. I then realized that I'm spending $60 a month on a single instance, which despite having "free" money, is stupid.
I split everything up into Docker containers, and run them on Droplets now. Sure, I pay $5/month now for each server, but that's fine. One of the e-mail servers is for my wedding; I'll turn it off when I don't need it anymore. The interface for bringing up new Droplets is simple and clean, and lets me do exactly what I need to, no more and no less.
If you look at AWS or Google Cloud, there are so many available services that it can be daunting to get simple things going. I mean, it's not that bad, but once you've seen DO's interface, you realize how unnecessary a lot of it is.
I would still likely use AWS/GC for cases where I need to respond to changing load needs, which incidentally, is exactly what you're supposed to use it for. A DO + AWS hybrid infrastructure would be most ideal IMHO.
Re: DigitalOcean Raises $37.2M From Andreessen Horowitz to Take on AWS
#3First, it’s cheap.
Second, it's integrated. Which, to me at least, feels much more natural than AWS where you rent a virtual server, and then a database separately, persistent storage separately... Because it's integrated, it's also simple.
And they have a datacentre* in Amsterdam. Even two of them, right in the heart of the European Internet. That means latency to their servers is not noticeable in much of the EU.
* Yes, yes, probably more like a cage or whatever they rent.
Re: DigitalOcean Raises $37.2M From Andreessen Horowitz to Take on AWS
#4"The company is also working on IPv6, load balancing and eventually storage."
Looking at the feedback from their user base, and even rom my own experience, different storage options would be way more useful than IPv6 or even load balancing.
Re: DigitalOcean Raises $37.2M From Andreessen Horowitz to Take on AWS
#5First, it’s cheap. Second, it's integrated. Which, to me at least, feels much more natural than AWS where you rent a virtual server, and then a database separately, persistent storage separately... Because it's integrated, it's also simple. And they have a datacentre* in Amsterdam. Even two of them, right in the heart of the European Internet. That means latency to their servers is not noticeable in much of the EU. *…
What is integrated about it? They're just a VPS provider, which is a strict subset of what you can do on AWS.
Re: DigitalOcean Raises $37.2M From Andreessen Horowitz to Take on AWS
#6Love DigitalOcean. Sorta sad they still don't offer OpenBSD though.
OpenBSD -- the world's simplest and most secure Unix-like OS. Creator of the world's most used SSH implementation OpenSSH, the world's most elegant firewall PF, and the world's most elegant mail server OpenSMTPD. OpenBSD -- the cleanest kernel, the cleanest userland and the cleanest configuration syntax.
https://digitalocean.uservoice.com/forums/136585-digital-oce...
Re: DigitalOcean Raises $37.2M From Andreessen Horowitz to Take on AWS
#7I really like these guys. It's really no-nonsense hosting, which as a developer, is exactly what I need. I've been (stupidly) running my website, VPN, and e-mail servers all on a single EC2 instance, mostly because I had a bunch of AWS credits. I got some Google Cloud credits, so decided to move it there. I then realized that I'm spending $60 a month on a single instance, which despite having "free" money, is stupid.…
Thank you for the kind words. :)
Re: DigitalOcean Raises $37.2M From Andreessen Horowitz to Take on AWS
#8"The company is also working on IPv6, load balancing and eventually storage." Looking at the feedback from their user base, and even rom my own experience, different storage options would be way more useful than IPv6 or even load balancing.
It's been incredibly difficult to get an answer out of them on whether they pool bandwidth[1], which would allow you to just build your own load balancers on their smallish instances while leveraging the transfer included in the rest of your clusters.
I finally got an answer last night[2]
1. http://digitalocean.uservoice.com/forums/136585-digital-ocea... 2. https://twitter.com/jedgar/status/441314391301296128
Re: DigitalOcean Raises $37.2M From Andreessen Horowitz to Take on AWS
#9First, it’s cheap. Second, it's integrated. Which, to me at least, feels much more natural than AWS where you rent a virtual server, and then a database separately, persistent storage separately... Because it's integrated, it's also simple. And they have a datacentre* in Amsterdam. Even two of them, right in the heart of the European Internet. That means latency to their servers is not noticeable in much of the EU. *…
What is integrated about it? They're just a VPS provider, which is a strict subset of what you can do on AWS.
restart your aws server = goodbye data
or
hello network hdd
Re: DigitalOcean Raises $37.2M From Andreessen Horowitz to Take on AWS
#10$37.2m on a $153m post? That's a pretty big chunk of the company to give up. Looks like A16Z is going big on these guys. They're awesome, so that's great news!