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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

#171

Post by verelo »

bananas wrote: post #146
verelo wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Call me crazy, but do you think filling these issues are probably part of why they're raising funding? Getting ahead takes capital and i'm sure they're aware of what makes them inferior, you can't raise $37m without a good story on how you're going to use it to get ahead and win.

No because hosts on 1/10th of the budget are doing these things already. I have great hope for http://bigv.io but they're not quite there yet.

Do you actually have evidence of this or is this an off the cuff statement?

Having worked for some big hosts myself, i know how hard it can be to make changes once you have people using your platform. I suspect DO are in a similar situation and are looking to make a big leap forward with new growth leveraging their existing brand. I have no real evidence of this, but it feels like a sensible course of action.

No one likes giving up equity and taking money unless there is a damn good reason for it.

Re: DigitalOcean Raises $37.2M From Andreessen Horowitz to Take on AWS

#172

Post by [deleted] »

middleclick wrote: post #169
sneak wrote: post #58

DigitalOcean are dishonest with their customers. It's sad to see such a reputable firm throw in with people known to be liars.

It would be good if you can elaborate your point and back it up otherwise just saying this doesn't inspire much confidence.

[deleted]

Re: DigitalOcean Raises $37.2M From Andreessen Horowitz to Take on AWS

#173

Post by nl »

fuzzix wrote: post #75
bananas wrote: post #14

Adding to the commentary on here with something not so gushing: * kernels lag terribly behind the distributions meaning you're wide open sometimes. * can't resize or add storage * no freebsd support or custom kernels * VM availability problems. If you want to have another box, you aren't guaranteed to get one. * no IPv6 * somewhat shonky security reputation. * cant deliver to yahoo mail from their AMS2 IPs I've been…

Don't write about the owner's golf buddies either. https://vpsexperience.wordpress.com/ An odd experience, I would say.

There's a previous HN discussion[1]. My take personally was that the guy was a complete dick, and not worth defending.

Even if you take the stance that his ability to speak freely should be defended (which I agree with) I suspect his behaviour here indicates there could be more to the story. Plus he sounds like the kind of customer I wouldn't want to have.

Businesses should be free to choose who they serve (subject to some restrictions around bias against classes of people).

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7016735

Re: DigitalOcean Raises $37.2M From Andreessen Horowitz to Take on AWS

#174

Post by bmelton »

icebraining wrote: post #103
bmelton wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The DMCA prescribes a dispute policy, that allows the accused to refute the evidence provided by the accusers. I've seen numerous complaints indicating that Digital Ocean abides no such policies. http://digitalocean.uservoice.com/forums/136585-digitalocean...

The dispute (counter-notice) and put-back procedures in the DMCA say that the provider can put the content back online if the copyright owner does not bring a lawsuit within 14 days . I don't see anyone in that thread saying they violate this procedure; all I see is talk about some 48 hours limit, which is definitively not in the law.

I have personally never been a customer of Digital Ocean, in large part because, having heard these stories, would prefer that DO at least mention the matter to me before terminating service or locking my account.

Knowing first hand that other providers handle the exact same scenario with ample amounts of equitability informs my decision that there's a better way to go about it.

Effectively, it's the kind of policy that would allow me to jokingly refer competitors to becoming DO customers.

Re: DigitalOcean Raises $37.2M From Andreessen Horowitz to Take on AWS

#175

Post by bananas »

verelo wrote: post #171
bananas wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No because hosts on 1/10th of the budget are doing these things already. I have great hope for http://bigv.io but they're not quite there yet.

Do you actually have evidence of this or is this an off the cuff statement? Having worked for some big hosts myself, i know how hard it can be to make changes once you have people using your platform. I suspect DO are in a similar situation and are looking to make a big leap forward with new growth leveraging their existing brand. I have no real evidence of this, but it feels like a sensible course of action. No one…

Amongst other obscure jobs I've been employed to dig people out of the crap many a time in the hosting sector so yes I'm pretty close to this sort of stuff.

Normally in these situations, much as they do with DO already with disparate DC capabilities, you deploy infrastructure side-by-side and slowly port it over from one system to another. Developing the capabilities isn't really a big problem even if you build it versus buy as the total developer / administrator / server ratios on these sorts of companies are pretty favourable to massive automation.

I suspect they really do just want the money. Either than or they've short-sold themselves as a bargain host and now have trouble generating revenue and will lose too many customers if they crank prices so they're riding the investor's crack pipes via hype.

The latter is all too common unfortunately. One of the UK's "leading" hosts I did some consultancy for in the mid 00's actually relaunched with just under 50 CentOS servers with shared hosting/cPanel stuff on them but priced too low. They got customers but not enough to pay for the cage. Spent a couple of months moving their shit into a single 42U and consolidating their billing and provisioning system. They're still around now and can pay the bills. I did it for cash - I wouldn't want the equity myself.

Re: DigitalOcean Raises $37.2M From Andreessen Horowitz to Take on AWS

#176

Post by bananas »

phaker wrote: post #124
bananas wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah noticed that as well. First thing I do is (on debian), update packages and the kernel, install ufw (allow only 22), fail2ban, postfix and logwatch. Then setup a non privileged user, sudo, turn of root ssh and password auth and move to key based auth. Then I can sleep/configure the rest of the system. Been meaning to package this all up in an ansible playbook but I can't be bothered :( I'd be using FreeBSD if the…

> update packages and the kernel PSA: If you just update the kernel using system tools within the instance, it'll still boot the old one. (At least it did few months ago.) The grub (or other bootloader) and kernels that are installed inside the instance's disk image are silently ignored and the vm uses a kernel stored outside of your instance's image. You can select which kernel image you want to boot in the control…

It does still boot the old one. You have to power it off, change the kernel and power it up again.

Re: DigitalOcean Raises $37.2M From Andreessen Horowitz to Take on AWS

#178

Post by bananas »

robogrowth wrote: post #141
cscurmudgeon wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Things like this want me to give up programming and take up farming.

why not do both? I program, and have a small self sustaining micro farm. Just placed my order for 28 spring chickens, and 3 turkey's which will provide most of the meat for my family throughout the winter. I will supliment with fish and meat that I catch or hunt down. I also have a vegitable garden which we can most of our food from or preserve in other ways. :) If I want a chicken that tastes just as good as the one…

+1 - that's the way to live your life.

I have a massive vegetable garden but not enough to survive off completely as we're in a London suburb so we concentrate on growing the expensive stuff (and potatoes because once we planted them they just keep coming up every year).

Can't do chickens here - too many foxes.

Re: DigitalOcean Raises $37.2M From Andreessen Horowitz to Take on AWS

#179

Post by AznHisoka »

bananas wrote: post #129
oinksoft wrote: post #122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would you use that over iptables? It's simple and doesn't require installing a package. > There is a lot of functionality built into these > utilities, iptables being the most popular nowadays, but > they require a decent effort on behalf of the user to > learn and understand them. Is that a corner worth cutting?

Iptables is a crime against humanity from a config and documentation perspective. ufw makes it bearable. I'd rather use pf on BSD though.

I agree. iptables is horrid.

Re: DigitalOcean Raises $37.2M From Andreessen Horowitz to Take on AWS

#180

Post by oijaf888 »

drone wrote: post #160
oijaf888 wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't that only the case if you are paying yourself mainly via distributions? If you are paying yourself a market rate salary and taking any profits at the end of a good year via distributions would they frown on that? Assuming you have shareholders who don't work in the business (say family) I don't see how else you could distribute proceeds back to them.

The self-employment tax covers K-1 distributions, etc. If you're inactive (not actually working for the pass-through entity, only receiving profit distributions) your taxes are additionally higher on those distributions. In summary: typical pass-through entity distributions are typically taxed as self-employment income and subject to the SET which attempts to recover the missing employer's half of tax payments. You c…

Interesting, that's contrary to what I've heard from multiple sources (and pretty much all literature about the subject that I can find) about S-Corp distributions (again assuming you are being paid a market salary that you would hire someone at to perform similar tasks).
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