Earlier quoted context omitted.
I presume you've tried Windows Azure?
Isn't azure more of a PaaS than a IaaS?
Comparing Amazon EC2 to Joyent SmartOS
41–50 of 58 posts
Re: Comparing Amazon EC2 to Joyent SmartOS
#42I have been asking, and wondering why would anyone want to use AWS. It is insanely expensive. It is Slow on CPU, Slow on I/O, Low on Bandwidth, Low on memory, and Zero Support. Compared to many other alternatives that gives you 3 – 4 times the on all the above plus better support for the same price. Even their High CPU and Memory plan is still on the expensive side, only the High I/O SSD offers some value. AWS works…
We use AWS (and with great satisfaction) because it provides a full offering. We don't just need a bunch of servers, we also need databases, one or more queues, backup storage, caching and so forth. AWS provides all of these services, offers one (reasonably clear) dashboard for them and makes it insanely easy to get them all running and tied together. As for the Zero Support thing: our experience is that it is quite easy to get support from people at Amazon. I've been emailing extensively with one of their platform architects which was actually a very nice experience.
Re: Comparing Amazon EC2 to Joyent SmartOS
#43Earlier quoted context omitted.
As a new customer, I feel like Joyent needs to focus on simplifying things quite a bit. I want to run NodeJS on a server. I install the aptly titled 'SmartMachine Node.js' product and expect it to be the right version and the basic tools installed to get the job done. Instead, I get this morass of oh, you didn't install the right machine or oh, node is in some other directory now. Can you see how that might be distra…
The things you are complaining about -- top vs. prstat, dtrace, upstart vs. smf, clear and comprehensive documentation vs. man pages written in an afternoon or blog posts on the internet, apt vs. ips -- these are things that are objectively better on Solaris in a quantifiable way. If they make you feel like you're working with Windows 98, I don't think the problem is with the tools, but somewhere else. A few days ago…
Well, you said Solaris, not SmartOS.
If you really believe there is more information in SmartOS' wiki than in man pages & other proper documentation available about Linux, I don't think the problem is with the Linux monoculture, but somewhere else.
Re: Comparing Amazon EC2 to Joyent SmartOS
#44Earlier quoted context omitted.
The things you are complaining about -- top vs. prstat, dtrace, upstart vs. smf, clear and comprehensive documentation vs. man pages written in an afternoon or blog posts on the internet, apt vs. ips -- these are things that are objectively better on Solaris in a quantifiable way. If they make you feel like you're working with Windows 98, I don't think the problem is with the tools, but somewhere else. A few days ago…
Well, you said Solaris, not SmartOS. If you really believe there is more information in SmartOS' wiki than in man pages & other proper documentation available about Linux, I don't think the problem is with the Linux monoculture, but somewhere else.
SmartOS is Solaris. All documentation about Solaris is pertinent to SmartOS.
Re: Comparing Amazon EC2 to Joyent SmartOS
#45I don't understand why Joyent clings to a dead operating system. Are they planning to single-handedly keep solaris alive? Cloud computing is a commodity. Many (most?) customers use multiple clouds in parallel. Learning and maintaining the intricacies of a niche OS in this environment is a nonsensical proposition. And for what? For a few percentage points on a CPU benchmark? Seriously?
You do know they employ many of Solaris' core developers, right?
Re: Comparing Amazon EC2 to Joyent SmartOS
#46I have been asking, and wondering why would anyone want to use AWS. It is insanely expensive. It is Slow on CPU, Slow on I/O, Low on Bandwidth, Low on memory, and Zero Support. Compared to many other alternatives that gives you 3 – 4 times the on all the above plus better support for the same price. Even their High CPU and Memory plan is still on the expensive side, only the High I/O SSD offers some value. AWS works…
You're generalizing too much if you believe that the whole AWS stack is bad.
S3 is very reliable, and I'm not aware of anything as reliable (we're talking eleven nines)/simple/cheap/distributed.
EC2 gives you the ability to manage instances in several continents with a dead simple API, which is unheard of anywhere else at this price.
ELB is very reliable, simple to use, and saves you hours of setup.
My point is that if you really wonder why anyone would want to use AWS, you might not be considering AWS, but only EC2, and in a very non-international way.
Re: Comparing Amazon EC2 to Joyent SmartOS
#47Earlier quoted context omitted.
If you serve the US market Joyent is maybe good, if you serve the EU market you have way better deals with EU providers. Joyent have some servers in EU but they are just collocating. EC2 is available worldwide for good latency. Joyent love micro benchmarks because they allow one customer to grab a lot of CPU in burst, but if you are one of the other customers on the same hardware node, it is better to have a bit slow…
Loic, any pointers you can give (here or off-list) for the EU providers with way better deals? Thanks!
If you are okay with working on bare metal (i.e. no virtualization out of the box) than Hetzner (www.hetzner.de) is a very interesting partner. My experience with them is very good. Ex-colleagues are also happy with them.
Re: Comparing Amazon EC2 to Joyent SmartOS
#48I have been asking, and wondering why would anyone want to use AWS. It is insanely expensive. It is Slow on CPU, Slow on I/O, Low on Bandwidth, Low on memory, and Zero Support. Compared to many other alternatives that gives you 3 – 4 times the on all the above plus better support for the same price. Even their High CPU and Memory plan is still on the expensive side, only the High I/O SSD offers some value. AWS works…
You're generalizing too much if you believe that the whole AWS stack is bad. S3 is very reliable, and I'm not aware of anything as reliable (we're talking eleven nines)/simple/cheap/distributed. EC2 gives you the ability to manage instances in several continents with a dead simple API, which is unheard of anywhere else at this price. ELB is very reliable, simple to use, and saves you hours of setup. My point is that…
Arh. I should have written EC2. Sorry for the confusion. ( Will double check next time before i make a post )
I do realize there is other AWS services that are great and simple to use. But for hosting i dont think anyone should choose EC2.
Re: Comparing Amazon EC2 to Joyent SmartOS
#49The `ruby` benchmark on my iMac i3 3GHZ took `14.5` seconds. Inside of a CentOS 5.3 x64 virtual machine on Softlayer with 2 cpus and 1GB of memory got `15.6` seconds. Not sure how Joyent and especially AWS performed so poorly on that benchmark.
CPU quota
Re: Comparing Amazon EC2 to Joyent SmartOS
#50I don't understand why Joyent clings to a dead operating system. Are they planning to single-handedly keep solaris alive? Cloud computing is a commodity. Many (most?) customers use multiple clouds in parallel. Learning and maintaining the intricacies of a niche OS in this environment is a nonsensical proposition. And for what? For a few percentage points on a CPU benchmark? Seriously?
You do know they employ many of Solaris' core developers, right?
And how is that relevant?