Survey of Cloud Hosting Providers

Michael PetersPlusThree, LP

YAPC::NA 2010

What is "the cloud"?What is "the cloud"?

The definition we'll use for a cloud hosting provider is a hosting provider that abstracts away the hardware details and lets you scale your usage on-demand.

Why "the cloud"?Why "the cloud"?✔Minimal initial capital for a new startup or project✔Easily make duplicates of servers to scale out✔Easily add resources to scale up✔Reduce costs for temporary environments

✔QA, experimentation, etc✔Resources are guaranteed (vs shared hosting)✔Reduced system administration✔Easier and cheaper to migrate to different OS or software stack✔Easily clone existing machines

Why not "the cloud"?Why not "the cloud"?✔Extra strict security requirements (HIPAA, some PCI Levels)✔Your application needs access to the hardware✔Need "appliances" in your clust

✔High speed mailers✔Search appliances

✔Really high performance hardware

Oodles and OodlesOodles and Oodles✔AppEngine (Google)✔AWS (Amazon)✔Azure (Microsoft)✔Rackspace Cloud✔Linode✔Engine Yard✔Prgmr✔... and lots more

✔Terremark, Go Grid, Joyent, 3Tera, Cloud BG, Carinet, SymteriQ, Etelos, Elastic Hosts, Jungle Disk, etc.

Oodles and OodlesOodles and Oodles✔AppEngine (Google)✔AWS (Amazon)✔Azure (Microsoft)✔Rackspace Cloud✔Linode✔Engine Yard✔Prgmr✔... and lots more

✔Terremark, Go Grid, Joyent, 3Tera, Cloud BG, Carinet, SymteriQ, Etelos, Elastic Hosts, Jungle Disk, etc.

Why not...?Why not...?

Google's AppEngine

✔Python and Java (JVM) only✔Very different architecture✔Your application must be written from scratch only using the provided API✔Ultimate Vendor Lock-In

✔well, you can use AppScale✔ Very strict limits on computing time and resources

Why not...?Why not...?

Microsoft's Azure

✔Fairly New✔Windows only

✔some kind of special windows variant✔Not a lot of choices in language or software

✔some kind of IIS like thing✔.Net (CLR) languages✔some scripting languages✔no binaries, no compilation, no install

Why not...?Why not...?

Engine Yard

✔Ruby on Rails only

Why not...?Why not...?

Prgmr

✔Extremely small "slices"✔starts at 64MB RAM, 1.5G storage✔biggest is 4GB RAM, 96G storage

Reference SetupReference Setup

AWSAWS

http://aws.amazon.com

Composed of lots of different services that can be combined in different ways.

EC2, S3, EBS, SQS, RDS, Elastic MapReduce, Cloud Front, SimpleDB, VPC, FWS, FPS, Cloud Watch and many more.

AWSAWS

EC2 (Elastic Compute Cloud)

Basically their version of virtual hosts (using the Xen hypervisor).

Most applications won't need to be re-written and can run as-is.

Your infrastructure will most likely need to be different, system administration will most likely be different.

AWSAWS

EC2 (Elastic Compute Cloud)

Operating Systems

✔Windows✔Server 2003 and 2008

✔Linux✔RHEL, Fedora, OEL, OpenSUSE, Ubuntu, Debian, Gentoo

✔OpenSolaris

Supports both 32bit and 64bit (with restrictions)

AWSAWS

EC2 (Elastic Compute Cloud)

Sizes

✔8 Different sizes in 3 different groups✔standard✔high-memory✔high-cpu

✔Smallest: 1.7G RAM, 160G Storage✔Largest: 68G RAM, 1T Storage✔Network usage is billed separately✔Measures CPU in "compute units"

AWSAWSEC2 (Elastic Compute Cloud)

Pricing Model

✔On Demand✔Not sure how long you'll need it

✔Reserved✔Can save up to 35%

✔"Spot"✔Bid for unused capacity✔Can be really cheap✔Can lose it at any time

✔Windows is more expensive than Linux

AWSAWS

EC2 (Elastic Compute Cloud)

Locations

✔Mutiple datacenters in multiple locations✔Northern Virginia✔Northern California✔Ireland✔Singapore

✔You have full control over which location is used.

AWSAWS

EC2 (Elastic Compute Cloud)

IP Addresses

✔Instances are limited to 1 (private) IP Address which is NAT'd to provide public access.✔You can augment that with Elastic IPs which are associated with an account.✔Limited to 1 Elastic IP per instance.✔Quickly remap to a different server for changes or failover

AWSAWS

EC2 (Elastic Compute Cloud)

Elastic Load Balancing

✔Load balance HTTP traffic between EC2 instances.✔Automatically detects unhealthy nodes✔Can span multiple zones✔Works via DNS CNAMEs and can't be attached to non-root domain names.

AWSAWS

EC2 (Elastic Compute Cloud)

Storage

✔Completely ephemeral✔Plan for failure✔Not usable for services like a Database or a file server✔For permanent storage you need EBS

AWSAWS

EBS (Elastic Block Storage)

Block level storage volumes that can be mounted to EC2 instances. Behave like RAW unformatted disks.

Need to build your own filesystem on top of an EBS volume.

AWSAWS

EBS (Elastic Block Storage)

✔Volume sizes from 1G to 1T✔Volumes can be moved around EC2 hosts✔Can't be shared at the same time✔Automatic replication across zones✔Saved snapshots of volumes✔Clone snapshots to create volume copies

AWSAWS

EBS (Elastic Block Storage)

Not locally attached, which means every IO operation is a network operation.

Can be mitigated somewhat by using multiple EBS volumes attached to an EC2 host in a RAID 0 software array.

Larger EC2 instances have better network performance, so the larger the instance the better EBS will perform.

AWSAWS

SimpleDB

Non-relational data store (NoSQL). Automatic scaling, geographically distributed, zero maintenance, key-value store.

Vendor lock-in is high, but since there are lots of other distributed key-value stores around it shouldn't be too bad to abstract away.

AWSAWS

S3 (Simple Storage Service)

Storage of files that are available anywhere via a URL.

Usable outside of EC2.

Pseudo CDN that can be promoted to full CDN (CloudFront).

Supports both public and private files

AWSAWS

SQS (Simple Queue Service)

Messaging system that can be used by EC2 instances even across zones.

Redundant storage of messages (arcoss locations)

Unlimited number of readers and writers

AWSAWS

Cloud Watch

Monitor your EC2 instances to see how they perform and what resources they are using.

Also allows monitoring of EBS volumes and Elastic Load Balancing.

Charged per-instance but also includes Auto Scaling

Almost a necessity with EC2 impermanence

AWS - Basic SetupAWS - Basic Setup

AWS - Adv SetupAWS - Adv Setup

LinodeLinode

http://linode.com

Been around since 2003 providing VPS hosting. One main product: their virtual hosts ("linodes") using the Xen hypervisor. Like AWS's EC2, most applications won't need to be re-written.

Not as many additional services as AWS. Your infrastructure and system administration will probably not change much.

Operating Systems

✔Just Linux✔Arch, RHEL, Fedora, CentOS, OEL, OpenSUSE, Ubuntu, Debian, Gentoo, Slackware

Supports both 32bit and 64bit on all instances

LinodeLinode

Sizes

✔10 Different sizes✔Smallest: 512M RAM, 16G Storage✔Largest: 20G RAM, 640G Storage✔Network usage is built-in

✔Larger instances have more built-in bandwidth✔Bandwidth is pooled across all your instances✔Extra network usage can be purchased

LinodeLinode

Pricing Model

✔On Demand✔Not sure how long you'll need it

✔Reserved✔Can save up to 15%

LinodeLinode

Locations

✔Mutiple datacenters in multiple locations✔Newark, NJ✔Atlanta, GA✔Dallax, TX✔Fremont, CA✔London, UK

✔You have full control over which location is used.

LinodeLinode

IP Addresses

✔Instances start out with 2 IP Addresses (1 private, 1 public)✔Additional IPs can be purchased

✔irc support said there were no limits✔IP Addresses can be configured for failover✔Can swap between instances at any time

LinodeLinode

Storage

✔Permanent✔All disks are local with RAID mirroring✔No need for anything like EBS✔Since total storage on any single node is limited to 640G you'll need to handle larger sizes on your own

✔MogileFS✔Ceph

LinodeLinode

Misc

✔Free DNS hosting✔Support for Reverse DNS

✔Customize Installs with "Stack Scripts"✔Lish web-based console for emergencies✔OS Lovers (YAPC sponsors)✔Just gave all their existing customers 40% more RAM for free :)

LinodeLinode

Linode SetupLinode Setup

Rackspace CloudRackspace Cloud

http://rackspacecloud.com

Formerley Mosso and then bought Slicehost in 2008 and rebranded. Halfway between AWS and Linode but competing more with AWS.

✔Cloud Servers✔Cloud Files✔Cloud Sites

Operating Systems

✔Windows✔Server 2003 and 2008 (beta)

✔Linux✔Arch, RHEL, Fedora, OEL, OpenSUSE, Ubuntu, Debian, Gentoo

64bit on all instances

Rackspace CloudRackspace Cloud

Sizes

✔7 Different sizes✔Smallest: 256M RAM, 10G Storage✔Largest: 16G RAM, 620G Storage✔Network usage is extra

Rackspace CloudRackspace Cloud

Pricing Model

✔On Demand Only✔Windows is more expensive than Linux

Rackspace CloudRackspace Cloud

Locations

✔Mutiple datacenters in multiple locations✔Dallas, TX✔San Antonio, TX✔Chicago, IL✔Planning something for the UK

✔You don't have control over which location is used, at least as far as I could tell.

Rackspace CloudRackspace Cloud

IP Addresses

✔Instances start out with 2 IP Addresses (1 private, 1 public)✔Additional IPs can be purchased

✔A limit of 5 public IPs per instance✔Can only be used for SSL

Rackspace CloudRackspace Cloud

Storage

✔Permanent✔All disks are local with RAID mirroring✔No need for anything like EBS✔Since total storage on any single node is limited to 620G you'll need to handle larger sizes on your own

✔MogileFS✔Ceph

Rackspace CloudRackspace Cloud

Misc

✔Free DNS Hosting✔Support for Reverse DNS

✔Can mix dedicated and cloud servers on the same network

Rackspace CloudRackspace Cloud

Cloud Files

✔Similar to AWS ES3✔Store individual files accessible via URL✔Can easily upgrade those files to their CDN✔Supports public and private files

Rackspace CloudRackspace Cloud

Cloud Sites

✔Basic site hosting with automatic failover, load balancing and storage redundancy.✔No root access✔Supports Perl, PHP, Apache, mod_rewrite, MySQL, FTP and that's about it✔Control panel to manage DNS and crons✔Can't really install your own software✔Competes well against traditional shared hosting

Rackspace CloudRackspace Cloud

Rackspace SetupRackspace Setup

Feature ComparisonFeature ComparisonFeature AWS Linode Rackspace

Linux Yes Yes Yes

Windows Yes No Yes

BSDs No No No

Solaris Yes No No

Multiple IPs No Yes Yes(*)

On Demand Pricing Yes Yes Yes

Reserved Pricing Yes Yes No

"Tiny" sizes No Yes Yes

"Huge" sizes Yes No No

Dedicated Servers No No Yes

Permanent Local Storage No Yes Yes

Feature ComparisonFeature ComparisonFeature AWS Linode Rackspace

Auto Scaling Yes No No

Cloud File Storage Yes No Yes

Multiple Data Centers Yes Yes Yes

Automatic Backups No(*) Yes(*) Yes(*)

Add Extra Memory No Yes No

Add Extra Local Storage No Yes No

Free Non-Peak Resources No Yes Yes

API (w/ Perl modules) Yes Yes Yes

Command Line Yes No No

SLA 99.95% 99.9% 100%(*)

Shareable Images Yes No(*) No

Price ComparisonPrice ComparisonFeature AWS Linode Rackspace

256M RAM $11 1.5¢

512M RAM $20 2.7¢ $22 3¢

1G RAM $40 5.6¢ $44 6¢

2G RAM (1.7G AWS) $61 8.5¢ $80 11¢ $88 12¢

8G RAM (7.5G AWS) $244 34¢ $320 44¢ $350 49¢

16G RAM (15G AWS) $490 68¢ $640 89¢ $700 97¢

34G RAM $864 $1.20

64G RAM $1728 $2.40

Permanent Storage 10¢ G 10¢ MIO Free Free

Bandwidth In Free* Free $.08/G

Bandwidth Out $.15/G* Free $.22/G

File Storage $.15/G* $.15/G

File Bandwidth In Free* $.08/G

File Bandwidth Out $.15* $.22/G

I haven't done a comparison myself, but others have:

http://www.thebitsource.com/featured-posts/rackspace-cloud-servers-versus-amazon-ec2-performance-analysis/

http://journal.uggedal.com/vps-performance-comparison

Performance ComparisonPerformance Comparison

5 different benchmarks were carried out every 3 hours over a week, leading to 56 runs each. The slowest system used up to 3 hours to complete all 5 benchmarks.

Weeklong benchmarking was used to account for variance in host load during the day/night and week.

- Eivind Uggedal

Performance ComparisonPerformance Comparison

Single Processor Unixbench

Performance ComparisonPerformance Comparison

Multiple Processor Unixbench

Performance ComparisonPerformance Comparison

SQLBench on PostgreSQL

Performance ComparisonPerformance Comparison

Summarizing the benchmarks gives us one clear winner: Linode. 32-bit gave the best results on the Unixbench runs while 64-bit was fastest on the Django and database tests.

Since Linode also has the highest included bandwidth I have a hard time recommending any of the other providers if performance and price is most important for you.

- Eivind Uggedal

Performance ComparisonPerformance Comparison

5 different benchmarks were carried out every 3 hours over a week, leading to 56 runs each. The slowest system used up to 3 hours to complete all 5 benchmarks.

- Eivind Uggedal

My personal opinion:

Go with Linode unless you have a good reason not to. Unless you need:✔Mixed dedicated and virtual✔Windows or Solaris✔Bells and whistles (SQS, RDS, etc)✔Huge RAM needs

ConclusionsConclusions