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$500k of Azure credit for YC startups

blog.ycombinator.com

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Re: $500k of Azure credit for YC startups

#111

Post by spellboots »

maratd wrote: post #92
aioprisan wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Migrating from DO/AWS/Linode isn't fun and productive." Huh? You can run more or less the same type of services on Azure that you can on AWS. I wouldn't even consider DO due to lack of load balancers and file backup services.

> I wouldn't even consider DO due to lack of load balancers and file backup services. You can spin up your own load balancer pretty easily. DO offers backup too. In terms of bang for the buck, you can't really beat DO, unless you're giving your services away for free ...

I've found this to be very untrue - digital ocean offers very poor performance per $ compared to linode in my experience. Linode don't have a $5/month option but if you pay $10/month or more you will get a lot better performance at Linode

Re: $500k of Azure credit for YC startups

#112

Post by aceperry »

jread wrote: post #55
photorized wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You should give them another try. Azure has become much more stable. There was a major global outage a month or so ago, but then again that's something that had happened with other cloud providers. Overall, I find them easier to use than AWS, for example.

It was a multi-region, multi-hour outage on Nov 18. To my knowledge AWS has not experienced a multi-region outage. That said, they are learning from these events and improving stability.

I read that they didn't renew some certificate which needs to be renewed periodically. I also remember something like that happening with hotmail many years ago, where they forgot to renew their domain registration, and all of hotmail went off the net.

I had a friend who worked as a contractor for one of Microsoft's data centers a few years ago, and the stories he told me about how they run their datacenters was frightening. It sounded like management was out of touch and didn't really have a grasp on what was needed to keep everything running well.

Those stories leave me questioning Microsoft's basic competence in the cloud. While I'm glad to hear that they're improving their service, I just don't see them as being in the same class as AWS, Google, or even some of their smaller competitors such as DO. I would be wary of depending on Azure for anything critical.

Re: $500k of Azure credit for YC startups

#113

Post by vgt »

hinicholas wrote: post #61

I'm not sure how Azure intends to compete in this space. I've used Amazon, Rackspace, Google Cloud, Azure, and a bunch more. Professionally, for simplicity I'd choose Rackspace or Google. For Scalability and price I'd choose Amazon. For personal projects I love Digital Ocean. I dislike Azure's control panel and VM setup, and find their VMs slow. I'd only really consider them if I planned to implement a project that r…

Just curious why you think that Amazon is cheapest? Unless you do heavy RIs, Google Cloud is cheaper.

Re: $500k of Azure credit for YC startups

#115

Post by czbond »

pallian wrote: post #82

Just FYI - the $60k/year Azure offer is technically available for any startup just willing to ask nicely (not limited to just incubators). My company, http://trippeo.com just qualified for it last month (we get $5k/mo free hosting).

For others interested, Softlayer does too. I like their competitive stack compared to AWS.

Re: $500k of Azure credit for YC startups

#116

Post by rjbwork »

aceperry wrote: post #112
jread wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It was a multi-region, multi-hour outage on Nov 18. To my knowledge AWS has not experienced a multi-region outage. That said, they are learning from these events and improving stability.

I read that they didn't renew some certificate which needs to be renewed periodically. I also remember something like that happening with hotmail many years ago, where they forgot to renew their domain registration, and all of hotmail went off the net. I had a friend who worked as a contractor for one of Microsoft's data centers a few years ago, and the stories he told me about how they run their datacenters was frig…

They actually did a walkthrough of one of their DC's on video a while ago...it looked fairly impressive and well put together to me, but I've never been in anything but a small Co-Lo, so I'm not really sure what to look for.

Re: $500k of Azure credit for YC startups

#118

Post by rebootthesystem »

If Microsoft truly wants to transform they need to launch an intensive secret project. Let's call it "Project Redmond". The goal of the project would be to develop "Quantum", the next Microsoft OS. Quantum aligns MS with Linux by effectively building Windows on top of Linux as well as all the tools necessary to, as automatically as possible, migrate existing Windows code into Quantum.

With a move like this Microsoft becomes THE Linux company as the millions of non-tech and tech businesses who are Windows based migrate to Quantum over time. They could make the underlying souped-up Linux OS FOSS and sell the Quantum OS layer (or whatever works).

I am thinking in terms of the next 50 years, not 5. In the long term I just don't see how the existing MS model can prevail. A move like this Quantum OS concept would instantly align them with web development and provide a solid alternative to Apple on developers desktops and perhaps even Ubuntu at the server level.

Re: $500k of Azure credit for YC startups

#120

Post by grennis »

longlivegnu wrote: post #19
nullspace wrote: post #4

This is incredible! 500k is a big amount. Realistically speaking most startups would get free hosting for ~3 years out of this. For the future YC batches - depending on what your company is going to be doing, it would make very little financial sense to NOT host on Azure.

does azure offer any *nix services?

Do you want me to bing that for you?
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