Re: [Nolug] slicehost performance

On Thu, Mar 05, 2009 at 09:30:55AM -0600, Jonathan Roberts wrote:
> On Thu, Mar 5, 2009 at 6:56 AM, B. Estrade <estrabd@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > On Wed, Mar 04, 2009 at 10:23:27PM -0600, Jonathan Roberts wrote:
> > > What draws you to this type of hosting instead of a traditional ISP? Is
> > it
> > > something with the particular application you're deploying. Just
> > curious..
> >
> > One word: root
> >
> > Brett
> >
>
> I could see that compared to shared hosting. I didn't ask my question
> well. I'm wondering why someone would use this type of hosting over
> dedicated or colo servers. The costs are roughly the same (for Slicehost
> anyway).

Cost was an issue for me - if you know of a colo or dedicated provider
that only costs $20/mo, let me know! Another big one is that you no
longer have to worry directly about the underlying hardware. For
example, if you colo, you'll have to worry about parts and replacing
the machine - and buying new ones when you have to expand. With
images, you don't worry about the hardware or expanding. Xen images
can be migrated and new ones can be added easily and cheaply.

Other than that, I would say that the biggest boon is having control
(or the illusion of it). Xen will not be as fast as having direct access
to the host OS (e.g., FreeBSD jails), but it is not that bad and costs
are kept down on the provider side because Xen images are extremely
flexible and relatively easy to manage - even across machines and
platform/machine upgrades. It's kind of a win-win for everyone.

There might be a day when you need to keep a farm of machines, to
which you have direct access and control, but hopefully when that
times comes you can afford it.

The one issue of which I am not aware is, security. If you are worried
about sensitive data, I am not sure how Xen keeps you safe from the
admins of the system or on machines where another Xen image might be
compromised. I am sure they are pretty safe, but you need to
investigate this if it is a concern.

Brett

>
> Jonathan

-- 
B. Estrade 
http://www.loni.org
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