Echoing a lot of other comments here. I don't get why DigitalOcean exists. I would never use them over AWS, GCP, or Azure. They can't beat anyone on cost or functionality. I'm not convinced on simplicity. The other platforms aren't that difficult to use and for some you have to deal with regardless. For example, if you want to use Google Maps, then you need to use GCP to get access to the API. Since you're already in there, it's not much further to setup a VPS.
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
#232I used them for my private VPSes but they became too big and business-like. I moved to Scaleway now, it's still in a much earlier stage, cheaper and with unlimited bandwidth. I like the way you can still talk directly to their guys on slack to ask questions. However they're becoming big too. I hope they'll still love us and I don't have to move again soon :)
What's your experience with the service? I'm with Linode at the moment, primarily because DO doesn't have an Aussie region. Seems like Scaleway is much better value for money; however reviews on Reddit don't seem favourable.
I had a single server hosted at scaleway for a year or two, purely for "offsite" monitoring of services hosted elsewhere.
I only had one complaint; using their online control-panel it was impossible to set reverse DNS for IPv6 addresses - something that you need if you want to send email.
Otherwise the service was stable, reliable, and cheap. I retired the instance last month, but that was due to practical reasons rather than unhappiness with their services.
Re: DigitalOcean raises $100M in debt as it scales toward revenue of $300M
#233What happens when one of these mini-cloud providers like DO, Linode, and Vultr folds? What are the consequences as a customer? Does all your data just evaporate into the aether?
If they literally turn out the lights then yes.
Typically what happens in the low-end hosting world is that smaller providers get bought out by larger ones, (though large in this sense might mean a 4-person company with 200-1000 virtual machines gets acquired by a company 2-5 times larger). At that point you'll probably have your stuff running and you'll be "invited" to migrate.
But in short you should always assume your stuff is going to disappear; take (offsite) backups, have (offsite) monitoring, and design applications to cope with rebalancing/relocation/redeployments easily.
Re: DigitalOcean raises $100M in debt as it scales toward revenue of $300M
#234Earlier quoted context omitted.
I wonder if they would have if they didn't have to cut prices to compete with Vultr.
First time I'm hearing of Vultr...they look like a carbon copy of DO. What does Vultr have that they don't?
Bring your own ip: https://www.vultr.com/features/bgp/
Re: DigitalOcean raises $100M in debt as it scales toward revenue of $300M
#235Earlier 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).
Another thing I would love that I forgot to mention is hosted Kafka (or even hosted rabbitmq or similar), as I find them a pain to manage myself.
Re: DigitalOcean raises $100M in debt as it scales toward revenue of $300M
#236This article had more detail and substance than I usually find on TechCrunch or startup coverage in general. I do want to point out two things that bothered me in the article: 1. Using the word “raise” when talking about financing via debt seems inappropriate and very start-upy. This is a low cost of capital line of credit, is it not (due to their infrastructure and broad customer base)? 2. Why in the world are state…
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,…
The rules around deprecation and so on are at least intended to give a “better” picture about the health of some business, so it’s somewhat strange when we start going back the “lesser” data of cash flow.
As just one example, if you pay for supplies in one accounting period, but only sell (and get paid) in the next, cash flow will fluctuate widely, even if your business is entirely stable.
Re: DigitalOcean raises $100M in debt as it scales toward revenue of $300M
#237Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I agree with depreciation and other non cash expenses obfuscating P&Ls, but can we agree that in an article focused on securing debt financing, which will incur real interest expense, the term “free cash flow profitability”, “loosely” meaning “profitability” is a little misleading It depends on the industry. DO is in the capex heavy industry so depreciation is not a funky accounting cost, it is actually something t…
Software is not typically depreciated though. DO is writing code now that will last for decades but they have to take the accounting hit for it in one year.
At least in my small European country, I believe you can use a deprecation schedule for software as long you buy it externally, instead of creating it in-house.
The same is true for other creative work/IP. The reasoning being, I believe, that it is hard to appreciate (as in: set a monetary value) for such work. If you buy, you’ve given the open market a chance to work its magic and the price is believed to be closer to something like truth.
Re: DigitalOcean raises $100M in debt as it scales toward revenue of $300M
#238Earlier quoted context omitted.
> 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. but does a company have to be "honest" about such depreciations? What if the asset isn't actually losing value at the stated depreciation rate? Then at the end of the depreciation period, the company may still extract the residual value by either selling or continue us…
This might be different in various countries, but in general companies cannot play games with depreciation. The financial audit is done according to certain rules and common practices. In reality some of these investments might be hard to properly calculate and audit, but simply reporting them as zero is malicious. EBITDA numbers should provide the insight into profitability without hiding anything.
It's generally fine to mark down your assets faster than they actually become obsolete, so you can take all the depreciation in year 0 if you want. Marking them down slower and overstating profitability is not so cool.
Re: DigitalOcean raises $100M in debt as it scales toward revenue of $300M
#239Earlier quoted context omitted.
What's your experience with the service? I'm with Linode at the moment, primarily because DO doesn't have an Aussie region. Seems like Scaleway is much better value for money; however reviews on Reddit don't seem favourable.
Try binarylane if you're in aus
BinaryLane are amazing.
Re: DigitalOcean raises $100M in debt as it scales toward revenue of $300M
#240Earlier quoted context omitted.
I wonder if they would have if they didn't have to cut prices to compete with Vultr.
First time I'm hearing of Vultr...they look like a carbon copy of DO. What does Vultr have that they don't?
A lot more locations and some really great NVMe-based high-performance nodes.