
Ask HN: Why is AWS so popular despite being impossibly complex? - Killah911
Was planning to move to AWS &amp; consolidate out server from Linode and Digital Ocean.  OMG, it&#x27;s been like the month from hell!  I&#x27;ve had to spend incredible amounts of time trying to learn AWS &amp; now I have a $1900 bill (highest Linodo bill was $150) b&#x2F;c I checked the dedicated instance box I was playing around with.<p>I can&#x27;t put into words the kind of frustration AWS creates compared to Linode or Digital Ocean.  Why the hell are they still so popular?
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viraptor
Because what VPS providers give you is more or less what only EC2 + EBS gives
you. AWS provides ~30 other services which tightly integrate with the rest.

If you used one instance and did it by mistake while trying things out, chat
to support / billing. Tell them you're in the process of migrating to them and
don't understand the system well - they may cancel/reduce the initial bill
just to keep you.

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Killah911
Thanks for the pointer. I was really freaking out about the crazy bill for
checking the wrong box.

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jordansmith
AWS can be easy and can be confusing.

If you want to use it like DO/Linode it isn't hard. Just fire up an EC2 server
and you are good to go.

It can get confusing when you start linking multiple services together, but
many of these services are life savers when it comes to scaling your apps.

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Killah911
You forgot the bit about configuring a million options before launching an EC2
instance, the persistence (hard drive) supposedly disappearing if you shut
down the matchine, not to mention, the SSH key that you MUST set up in order
to access the server. DO is significantly more intuitive and faster.

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viraptor
EC2 is not persistent. It uses ephemeral storage and they're pretty clear
about it.

The launch is not that complicated - it's 7 pages, most of which you can
ignore to go with defaults. You're interested in what you're running, what
size, network security, and storage - that's about it for the start.

Maybe you need to just take a break for a while... anger and billed services
don't mix well :) Alternatively, if you're just testing, make sure you click
"free tier only" at the beginning.

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ssapkota
Best analogy is knife vs swiss knife. AWS has a great toolset and comes handy
when it comes to scaling, at the same time it seems complex if you don't know
how to use it.

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Nortey
FWIW, I accidentally left a machine running for a month and ended up owing
~$700. I called them and told them I wasn't using it and they gave me the
money back. I'd give it a try if I were you.

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detaro
Why did you plan to move to AWS? If you just want a fixed set of virtualized
servers, they are neither the easiest nor the cheapest option. What's the pain
with Linode/DO you are trying to fix?

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Killah911
We wanted to use a platform that could implement things like PCI, HIPAA &
similar compliance issue we may run into. To be honest, as our startup is
getting bigger, we just wanted to start going with a "big boy" solution. Don't
have an IT team yet, but after talking to a few potential IT folks, it seemed
like AWS was the gold standard.

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forgottenacc56
Things be hard to learn in computers.Keep trying, it takes time.

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oldmanjay
This is sort of like asking why anyone would want a manual transmission
instead of an automatic. Not all of us find the complexity hopeless.

