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Amazon LightSail: Simple Virtual Private Servers on AWS

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Re: Amazon LightSail: Simple Virtual Private Servers on AWS

#32

Post by desireco42 »

I meant to say that it was about time someone comes up with something like this, but seems that in the details AWS complexity can still bite you.

Is there a service, that you know of, that would simplify AWS so that we can just use it with predictable expenses and ability to grow? Maybe I am asking for too much.

Re: Amazon LightSail: Simple Virtual Private Servers on AWS

#33

Post by akerl_ »

Someone1234 wrote: post #3

Just to be clear: This service is offered by Amazon/AWS themselves, it isn't a third party. That's a question I had when I first clicked, which is why I am answering it here. One big "gotcha" for AWS newbies which I cannot tell if this addresses: Does this set or allow the user to set a cost ceiling? AWS have offered billing alerts since forever. They'll also occasionally refund unexpected expenses (one time thing).…

I don't think that actually holds up. There are certainly some people that want "ironclad guarantees", but the reality of cost here is pretty close: you pay $5/mo max for the server. The things that can cost more are either overages on bandwidth/dns (and here, 1TB of bandwidth on the low end is included, eliminating a lot of the flux from EC2), or things you choose to initiate, like snapshots.

It feels like the larger thing they're trying to solve, that I expect actually stops the majority of people who don't choose AWS, is the complexity around setting up VPCs/SecurityGroups/Subnets/etc.

Most providers in the VPS space already charge overages for bandwidth, and most of them don't support suspending the account vs just billing you.

Re: Amazon LightSail: Simple Virtual Private Servers on AWS

#34

Post by slig »

jqueryin wrote: post #15

My guess is Amazon wants to rope people into their ecosystem, and they've recognized that many startups have opted for the cheaper VPS providers in their bootstrap days. This is an intriguing move and one that I'm sure DigitalOcean, Linode, and Vultr have been fearing may happen. The pricing is on par with these alternatives in the VPS space.

> The pricing is on par with these alternatives in the VPS space.

Linode offers the double of the RAM for the same price for $10, $20 and $40 VPSs.

Re: Amazon LightSail: Simple Virtual Private Servers on AWS

#36

Post by Veen »

I think a million VPS hosting companies just cried out in terror.

The major reason to use a VPS host instead of AWS is that AWS is complicated. This seems to be just as simple as DO or a million other VPS hosts, with the added benefit that it's easy to hook up to Amazon's other services if you need to.

Re: Amazon LightSail: Simple Virtual Private Servers on AWS

#38

Post by johnqpub »

Someone1234 wrote: post #3

Just to be clear: This service is offered by Amazon/AWS themselves, it isn't a third party. That's a question I had when I first clicked, which is why I am answering it here. One big "gotcha" for AWS newbies which I cannot tell if this addresses: Does this set or allow the user to set a cost ceiling? AWS have offered billing alerts since forever. They'll also occasionally refund unexpected expenses (one time thing).…

>I'd welcome an account suspend instead of bill shock.

The big question here is what to do with stateful data. Would you accept an immediate deletion of all of your S3 data? RDS instances and snapshots?

Re: Amazon LightSail: Simple Virtual Private Servers on AWS

#40

Post by reacharavindh »

scosman wrote: post #9

This is the first cheap bandwidth option I've seen on AWS. Transferring 1TB out of S3 or EC2 is costs about $90, but is included in a $5 server with Lightsail.

Looks like you can spin up three of these instances as a proxy and pay $15 for 3 TB of bandwidth from AWS.
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