4 ms·

Point taken about OrionVM. I worry about their long-term future as speed to the US becomes less of an issue, though. I see what you mean about BigCommerce. The

Point taken about OrionVM. I worry about their long-term future as speed to the US becomes less of an issue, though. I see what you mean about BigCommerce. The admin panel is painful (and I've heard that the actual system is hell for their employees to hack on), but they're definitely doing a roaring trade, and the instructional articles and videos they provide along with their actual product are rather useful. The environment the Australian startup scene is a bit odd. We can't (easily) accept payment from US customers (and vice-versa), so we effectively have a little "bubble" in which we can set up paid products without much fear of the existing US startups stomping all over us. Interesting times.

nl 15y ago
Point taken about OrionVM. I worry about their long-term future as speed to the US becomes less of an issue, though. They fixed that speed of light problem? :) We're going to be stuck on 100ms ping times until that is fixed (http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=sydney+to+los+angles+at+speed+of+light http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=sydney+to+los+angles+at...) OTOH, I'm not sure what they will do when Amazon opens their datacenter (if that really is their plan). We can't (easily) accept payment from US customers (and vice-versa) That's not really true. Yes, it is more work than "include this Javascript file and you can accept payment" (aka Stripe), but if you are prepared to do some work it isn't that big a deal. Plus there is always Paypal. (Also, most US countries accept Australian payment. Some won't ship here, but that's a different problem)
- damncabbage 15y ago
  That's not really true. Yes, it is more work than "include this Javascript file and you can accept payment" (aka Stripe), but if you are prepared to do some work it isn't that big a deal. It is if you want to display your prices in US Dollars to American visitors: http://blog.angrymonkeys.com.au/why-being-an-aussie-startup-sucks http://blog.angrymonkeys.com.au/why-being-an-aussie-startup-... (with discussion here: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3098224 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3098224 ) Summary: You CAN do it if you have enough cash. (This post also addresses the PayPal point. You're stuck with Payflow Pro, which is much pricier, especially for a bootstrapped startup.) (Also, most US countries accept Australian payment. Some won't ship here, but that's a different problem) Point. (They won't usually quote prices in AUD, but that's much less of a problem.)
- sanswork 15y ago
  I don't see Amazon opening up an AU datacentre for a very long time(and probably never). They have Singapore now which will cover a much larger market then Australia will ever be for them.
  - orionvmjoseph 15y ago
    It's coming sooner than you may think.. However it doesn't really pose a risk to our market niche. We differentiate ourselves from Amazon on numerous fronts, primarily performance and paradigm. Both of which are sustainable for the foreseeable future. Amazon coming to Australia mainly poses a risk to traditional VPS hosting and commodity cloud providers. Personally, Amazon joining us here shows that validation and maturity of the market in Australia has been reached and is a big boost to our business.
    - nl 15y ago
      It's coming sooner than you may think.. That's what I hear too (I work in an area fairly closely related) - although some think it might be just a CDN node.
  - robryan 15y ago
    From what I heard this will be happening very soon, can't remember the exact times but it's definitely on the cards if not already being setup.
  - nl 15y ago
    Singapore sucks for Australian connectivity. Best case is ~50ms round trip to Sydney (which is half to West Coast US), but some ISPs route to Singapore via the US because the bandwidth is cheaper[1][2] (yes, this is insane). [1] https://forums.aws.amazon.com/thread.jspa?threadID=45867 https://forums.aws.amazon.com/thread.jspa?threadID=45867 [2] http://akb.id.au/2011/amazon-ec2-latency-australian-soil http://akb.id.au/2011/amazon-ec2-latency-australian-soil
    - asharp 15y ago
      Yep. Best path through is via SeMeWe3 to singapore which is fairly fast. Most people end up with bw through PPC1 or SX which both end up in the US. People mostly do this because SeMeWe3 is stupidly congested and expencive compared to say PPC1, and most traffic goes through to the us rather then europe/asia. Also remember that PPC1 when it stops over in Guam can end up coming back into asia via Asia-America gateway/etc. I'm not sure if any of the major providers actually backhaul through there.
- brc 15y ago
  I thought there was only one US country? The shipping thing is either: (a) company has a fear of foreigners, usually instilled via chargebacks from dodgy countries (b) company sells things that have different distribution arrangements for Australia and the local distributor wants their monopoly. In the case of (a) use a mailbox service like MyUs, in the case of (b) use a mailbox service like MyUs, then ring up said distributor and tell them how much money they failed to extort from you.

nl 15y ago

Point taken about OrionVM. I worry about their long-term future as speed to the US becomes less of an issue, though. They fixed that speed of light problem? :) We're going to be stuck on 100ms ping times until that is fixed (http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=sydney+to+los+angles+at+speed+of+light http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=sydney+to+los+angles+at...) OTOH, I'm not sure what they will do when Amazon opens their datacenter (if that really is their plan). We can't (easily) accept payment from US customers (and vice-versa) That's not really true. Yes, it is more work than "include this Javascript file and you can accept payment" (aka Stripe), but if you are prepared to do some work it isn't that big a deal. Plus there is always Paypal. (Also, most US countries accept Australian payment. Some won't ship here, but that's a different problem)

damncabbage 15y ago
That's not really true. Yes, it is more work than "include this Javascript file and you can accept payment" (aka Stripe), but if you are prepared to do some work it isn't that big a deal. It is if you want to display your prices in US Dollars to American visitors: http://blog.angrymonkeys.com.au/why-being-an-aussie-startup-sucks http://blog.angrymonkeys.com.au/why-being-an-aussie-startup-... (with discussion here: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3098224 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3098224 ) Summary: You CAN do it if you have enough cash. (This post also addresses the PayPal point. You're stuck with Payflow Pro, which is much pricier, especially for a bootstrapped startup.) (Also, most US countries accept Australian payment. Some won't ship here, but that's a different problem) Point. (They won't usually quote prices in AUD, but that's much less of a problem.)
sanswork 15y ago
I don't see Amazon opening up an AU datacentre for a very long time(and probably never). They have Singapore now which will cover a much larger market then Australia will ever be for them.
- orionvmjoseph 15y ago
  It's coming sooner than you may think.. However it doesn't really pose a risk to our market niche. We differentiate ourselves from Amazon on numerous fronts, primarily performance and paradigm. Both of which are sustainable for the foreseeable future. Amazon coming to Australia mainly poses a risk to traditional VPS hosting and commodity cloud providers. Personally, Amazon joining us here shows that validation and maturity of the market in Australia has been reached and is a big boost to our business.
  - nl 15y ago
    It's coming sooner than you may think.. That's what I hear too (I work in an area fairly closely related) - although some think it might be just a CDN node.
- robryan 15y ago
  From what I heard this will be happening very soon, can't remember the exact times but it's definitely on the cards if not already being setup.
- nl 15y ago
  Singapore sucks for Australian connectivity. Best case is ~50ms round trip to Sydney (which is half to West Coast US), but some ISPs route to Singapore via the US because the bandwidth is cheaper[1][2] (yes, this is insane). [1] https://forums.aws.amazon.com/thread.jspa?threadID=45867 https://forums.aws.amazon.com/thread.jspa?threadID=45867 [2] http://akb.id.au/2011/amazon-ec2-latency-australian-soil http://akb.id.au/2011/amazon-ec2-latency-australian-soil
  - asharp 15y ago
    Yep. Best path through is via SeMeWe3 to singapore which is fairly fast. Most people end up with bw through PPC1 or SX which both end up in the US. People mostly do this because SeMeWe3 is stupidly congested and expencive compared to say PPC1, and most traffic goes through to the us rather then europe/asia. Also remember that PPC1 when it stops over in Guam can end up coming back into asia via Asia-America gateway/etc. I'm not sure if any of the major providers actually backhaul through there.
brc 15y ago
I thought there was only one US country? The shipping thing is either: (a) company has a fear of foreigners, usually instilled via chargebacks from dodgy countries (b) company sells things that have different distribution arrangements for Australia and the local distributor wants their monopoly. In the case of (a) use a mailbox service like MyUs, in the case of (b) use a mailbox service like MyUs, then ring up said distributor and tell them how much money they failed to extort from you.