

Ask HN: Cloud computing cheaper or more expensive than other solutions? - spoiledtechie

I have not dove into Amazon web services or Google or even Microsoft Azure.<p>But since Amazon is the only real leader right now in cloud computing.<p>Is it cheaper to go with Amazon or a location like Dream Host or Godaddy?<p>I know Amazon can scale, but you can do that with Godaddy as well...
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satyajit
I am in the same position you are. I considered DreamHost, SliceHost, and few
others and went in for a barebone Linux Xen virtualization hoting at
vpsfarm.com. Good enough for me to boot up. Why I didn't go for Amazon -
though I think EC2 provides way more value for what I am trying to do. BUT -
their pricing is very confusing and sucks - while companies like
slicehost/engineyard give upfront pricing, and they are scalable too (may not
be upto EC2 level). For me, the price plays a big role as we are bootstrapping
from our own pocket. EC2 pricing is a huge matrix of upstream, downstream,
storage, bunch of other things, which makes it almost impossible to estimate
how much you might have to pay! Having said that, I may consider them at a
later point of time, where we grow (hopefully) to bigger infrastructure.

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spoiledtechie
EXACTLY. Thats exactly where I am. Bootstrapped out of my own pocket and
trying to get up and running.

EDIT: Thanks.

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ErrantX
Having built a couple of scalable systems of my own (personal project one
running on 5 machines currently and 2 works ones running on 50 machines and
17,000+(client)/15(server) machines respectively - though note those last 2
are not websites) I can say safely that the easiest option is to go with a
cloud provider. :)

It's a pain to make sure you monitor loads and tweak the availability as
things grow. Whereas with Amazon (who I would 100% recommend having recently
played with them) it is pretty much all automagical :)

One of the things I used to do when I was a more naive programmer was attempt
to reinvent the wheel. Take LiveMeta. I got distracted for _at least_ 2 weeks
writing a javascript/php visitor tracking system (and it was damn good :D) .
But the thing is - it's not what the site was about, it was an incidental
feature (solely for the developers too!) and in the end Google/Clicky provided
enough features.

I traded one cut and paste of the Google Analytics code for 2 weeks I should
have spent on the other parts of the project.

Same applies here: dont give yourself work. If the project is going to need to
scale fast ebough to require cloud computing/scalable architecture pay the bit
extra to have Amazon do it for you. 3 years down the line you might decide it
is time to invest in your own network - but right now I doubtthat shouldbe
your focus. :)

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spoiledtechie
If I may ask, what apps have you built that brings all this experience?

So it does cost a little bit more than the regular services. Thats what I
gathered, but its also def worth it.

Since I have ASP.net Stack, I would have to go with Windows Azure.

~~~
ErrantX
You have to understand that some aspects of the work stuff is covered under
NDA :)

HOwever..

The personal project is a social network site (still under development) - I
built the scalable back end because we secured some funding and were thinking
of launching until other factors caused us to re-evaluate. We built the
architecture because it is running an evolved version caching server I wrote
at university plus some other parallel applications (my thesis was in these
areas) I wrote to load balance the Databases :)

On the work front the smaller cluster is essentially a massive cache cluster
(like BigTable) I wrote based on my previous work that we use in office for
storing the large fast-access tables we use. We process & access numerous pre-
generated hashes daily (upwards of a billion). The software can scale as we
add / remove nodes. If it needs extra storage it can temporairily grab one of
the other servers used for other purposes. If this happens a lot it notifies
us we need a new addition: commodity hardware, 64Bit OS with jack lots of RAM
and voila :D

The second setup is the hash generation system. The server side of this is a
distributed storage system (again custom written). It does work closely with
the hash database too. I cant realy talk about the client side of the above :)

Coding in the scalability was the hardest part of all 3 exercises.

EDIT: and if that sounds cool, well, it is. But it is also a lot of headaches
too :)

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iamelgringo
My situtation is a bit unique, because I'm using EC2's for Windows server
hosting.

I tried using something like Web Faction or Slice host for a while. And, while
they were fine, my *nix admin fu < Windows admin fu. So, it was taking me five
times longer to set up a Unix server on slicehost that did what I wanted it
to.

I was frustrated, so I tried to set up a Windows server on EC2 running a WAMP
stack. I had my site up and running within a few hours. I looked around for
other Windows hosting solutions, and about my only other options were to get a
dedicated box at 2x the price.

It's been running flawlessly for a month. I'm really happy. I really don't see
my self using anyone else for hosting right now. If Azure starts looking ready
for prime time, I'll check it out, but right now, it's EC2 for me.

So, not only is EC2 more convenient for me, it's actually cheaper than other
Windows hosting options that I found.

