Show HN: RocketCloud - SSD Cloud Servers in the UK

[RocketCloud]

https://rocketcloud.me

RocketCloud offers SSD-backed cloud servers in the UK.

We are a small team consisting of developers and system admins that decided (for various reasons) the current cloud server offerings weren't good enough. For example:

Many have far too many options and pricing structures since you have to choose two of these for every one of those and need this data bus for that storage stack and if you run out of this thing you have to pay for that other thing. Privacy and security issues due to governmental laws and restrictions and allegations of backdoors into the infrastructure. Few provide SSDs as an option but those that offer them do so at inflated prices.

Being in the EU we have very strong laws governing data privacy and security and no back doors into our infrastructure either.

We are also taking the dozens of options that others have and are trimming them down to only a few sensible ones.

Oh, and we only use SSDs in our servers giving you up to 250x I/O performance over normal enterprise disks and we don't charge a premium for them since they are a standard offering.

We don't quite have everything in place yet and will need beta testers soon so if you are interested in being part of the beta, or you just want to be kept informed of our progress then please enter your email on the site and we will keep you up to date.

You can also find us on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/rocketcloudssd

[ksec]

What Kind of SSD? Intel DC Series 3500? What CPU? Do those price includes Backup? Pricing Wise is similar DigitalOcean. Only with USD / Pound sign swap. But I guess UK's electricity and Rack rental is a lot more expensive then US. Scalable? Based on OnApp? Xen? KVM? Plans Higher then 8GB?

[RocketCloud → ksec]

We haven't bought the hardware yet although we have a shortlist so I can't give you any specifics at this time :(

Backups won't be online from day one I don't think but it is something we will be looking at soon after.

Power/Bandwidth is a strange beast in the UK: Up north, power is cheap and bandwidth is expensive but it is the other way round the further south you go! (anecdotal evidence but it's broadly true)

We are looking at up to 16GB at the moment but we are not ruling out bigger VMs

We will be based on Hyper-V 2012.

More details will be forthcoming as we get nearer the launch date.

[johneth]

This looks interesting, I might use it in the future (currently a Rackspace customer). I'll definitely keep an eye on you though.

Do you have plans to add any other features to the service (I know one of your selling points is keeping it simple, but that doesn't mean adding other features is impossible!)

[RocketCloud → johneth]

I should qualify that statement as it sounds a bit "final"... I mean that we want to release as few features as we can that still provide value at the start, then we perfect them before adding more as time goes on and as demand rises.

I think Jason Fried said something along the lines of "it's better to release a well done half than a half-assed whole"

That sounds a bit better :)

[RocketCloud → johneth]

Not at this time but we want to start simple.

I would rather we perfected the simple stuff then added the things that increased value and that people are actually wanting.

[ddorian43]

What kind of raid ?

[RocketCloud → ddorian43]

Probably RAID 1 (or manufacturer equivalent) for the VMs.