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One of my favorite startups. I signed up for a single server some time ago to try them out and was amazed when I saw the control panel, API and the ecosystem th

by nikcub 13y ago

One of my favorite startups. I signed up for a single server some time ago to try them out and was amazed when I saw the control panel, API and the ecosystem that has already built up around the service. To those of you asking what is so special about DO compared to ExyExtraVps.is running stock WHMCS[1] or whatever over at LEB it is that DO are providing the type of features, flexibility and support that Rackspace, AWS and Azure provide but at prices that are close to what the low-end VPS types offer. If you imagine a Gartner-style quadrant for hosting with price on one axis and then features/support/flexibility on another most providers today sit somewhere along a very straight line - you either have a bunch of features and flexibility and are expensive or you are very rigid and cheap. DO is right up in high features but low price, and it seems so obvious in hindsight (Linode were almost there). I now have Vagrant setup with Digital Ocean as a provider[2] so setting up a box is as easy as running 'vagrant up --provider=digital_ocean' and then waiting a minute. There are tons of other tools already built up around their API and the ecosystem is thriving. I have another script setup ready to fire up additional instances of web apps. I'm moving everything I can and that fits from AWS and recommending DO to clients also where it would fit (staging servers, dev servers, backup servers, etc.) There are still some features they need - like load balancing, multiple IP's etc. but this funding means all of that is going to be built sooner. There is a reason why they are one of the fastest growing hosts ever[3]. These guys are destined to get really really big. There is also a great effect wherever digital ocean is mentioned online you find a comment thread with dozens of users saying how awesome they are. You can't buy that type of love. [1] Not to mention that all of that off-the-shelf VPS software running these sites is an absolute security nightmare. The developers rely on hiding their poor code behind ioncube encoding and this has been exposed recently with some big name hacks. [2] https://github.com/smdahlen/vagrant-digitalocean https://github.com/smdahlen/vagrant-digitalocean [3] Netcraft: The meteoric rise of Digital Ocean: http://news.netcraft.com/archives/2013/06/13/the-meteoric-rise-of-digitalocean.html http://news.netcraft.com/archives/2013/06/13/the-meteoric-ri... edit: forgot to include this earlier, but by way of a disclaimer I introduced Digital Ocean to Crunchfund but don't have a financial stake.

mikevm 13y ago
I've been out of the webdev loop for years so I've never used Vagrant, but I've read a bit about it and I see it mentioned all the time. I understand that Vagrant is used to quickly set up virtual machines (and all the required software) to replicate a production environment so that you can test your web app on it without having to clutter your own machine with that software. I understand that you can have a Vagrant provider for VMWare and VirtualBox, but what does it mean for you to have a DigitalOcean provider for Vagrant? Also, maybe someone can drop a few words in on the typical usage scenario for Vagrant? Other than automation, how else does Vagrant help a developer, and how does it tie into the various VPS services (such as AWS, DO, etc...)?
- sehrope 13y ago
  > I understand that you can have a Vagrant provider for VMWare and VirtualBox, but what does it mean for you to have a DigitalOcean provider for Vagrant? Instead of spinning up a VM on your local machine it spins up a new droplet in your Digital Ocean account (droplet is DO's term for a virtual server). > Also, maybe someone can drop a few words in on the typical usage scenario for Vagrant? Other than automation, how else does Vagrant help a developer, and how does it tie into the various VPS services (such as AWS, DO, etc...)? Vagrant lets you define a server environment that you can turn on with just a simple "vagrant up". For apps that have server dependencies (who doesn't?) like databases or MQ servers, you can isolate them into a standard VM. If someone else is going to work on your app then they can get started immeidately via "vagrant up". No need to manually setup the server dependencies, it'll all automagically build itself. Once you start using it you'll never go back to manually setting up server dependencies for dev. It pays for itself in time savings the first time you use it. Vagrant integration with AWS or DO is simply to have the server spin up there rather than locally. Even cooler is the expermental Docker integration (as a provider) as it lets you run many Vagrant VMs with minimal overhead.
  - mikevm 13y ago
    Thanks for the quick reply! > Instead of spinning up a VM on your local machine it spins up a new droplet in your Digital Ocean account (droplet is DO's term for a virtual server). >Vagrant integration with AWS or DO is simply to have the server spin up there rather than locally. Every droplet costs money, why would you want to create new droplets for development, when you can spin up a VM locally? What are the advantages of spinning up remote server instances over local ones?

by nikcub 13y ago

mikevm 13y ago

I've been out of the webdev loop for years so I've never used Vagrant, but I've read a bit about it and I see it mentioned all the time. I understand that Vagrant is used to quickly set up virtual machines (and all the required software) to replicate a production environment so that you can test your web app on it without having to clutter your own machine with that software. I understand that you can have a Vagrant provider for VMWare and VirtualBox, but what does it mean for you to have a DigitalOcean provider for Vagrant? Also, maybe someone can drop a few words in on the typical usage scenario for Vagrant? Other than automation, how else does Vagrant help a developer, and how does it tie into the various VPS services (such as AWS, DO, etc...)?

sehrope 13y ago
> I understand that you can have a Vagrant provider for VMWare and VirtualBox, but what does it mean for you to have a DigitalOcean provider for Vagrant? Instead of spinning up a VM on your local machine it spins up a new droplet in your Digital Ocean account (droplet is DO's term for a virtual server). > Also, maybe someone can drop a few words in on the typical usage scenario for Vagrant? Other than automation, how else does Vagrant help a developer, and how does it tie into the various VPS services (such as AWS, DO, etc...)? Vagrant lets you define a server environment that you can turn on with just a simple "vagrant up". For apps that have server dependencies (who doesn't?) like databases or MQ servers, you can isolate them into a standard VM. If someone else is going to work on your app then they can get started immeidately via "vagrant up". No need to manually setup the server dependencies, it'll all automagically build itself. Once you start using it you'll never go back to manually setting up server dependencies for dev. It pays for itself in time savings the first time you use it. Vagrant integration with AWS or DO is simply to have the server spin up there rather than locally. Even cooler is the expermental Docker integration (as a provider) as it lets you run many Vagrant VMs with minimal overhead.
- mikevm 13y ago
  Thanks for the quick reply! > Instead of spinning up a VM on your local machine it spins up a new droplet in your Digital Ocean account (droplet is DO's term for a virtual server). >Vagrant integration with AWS or DO is simply to have the server spin up there rather than locally. Every droplet costs money, why would you want to create new droplets for development, when you can spin up a VM locally? What are the advantages of spinning up remote server instances over local ones?