4 ms·

I use Azure VMs but this post got me to check out your pricing again. You're not as expensive as I remember. In fact you look right in line with Azure and EC2

by 300bps 13y ago

I use Azure VMs but this post got me to check out your pricing again. You're not as expensive as I remember. In fact you look right in line with Azure and EC2. Looks like with this program you can get a free 1 GB Linux or almost free 1 GB Windows server for 6 months anyway. Thanks for the program - it put you back on my radar.

jnoller 13y ago
Yes, we're actually very cost competitive for VMs - and cloud files includes a global CDN. I'm really, really, really happy this put us back on your radar. If you run into issues or have questions - jesse.noller@rackspace.com - my door is always open.
- NonEUCitizen 13y ago
  What's the URL to your pricing page?
  - jnoller 13y ago
    http://www.rackspace.com/cloud/servers/ http://www.rackspace.com/cloud/servers/ http://www.rackspace.com/cloud/files/pricing/ http://www.rackspace.com/cloud/files/pricing/
    - NonEUCitizen 13y ago
      Do you support setting a cap on cloud files? e.g. customer sets some limit, say, $500/month, and if it ever hits that number it stops serving files instead of running up charges. And/or do you support triggers, so customer gets an email when charges run up to $200, then another email at $300, etc. ?
      - russell_h 13y ago
        We don't currently support hard limits, but we've partnered with Cloudability, which lets you set budget alerts: https://cloudability.com/rackspace/ https://cloudability.com/rackspace/
        groks 13y ago
        Not really good enough. It's unacceptable to ask your customers to expose themselves to unlimited billing liability. This is one thing that Google gets right and yourselves and Amazon don't: the ability to set a budget. I bet if I didn't pay my bill on time you'd cut me off pretty quick. Why not let me tell you how much I've got to spend ahead of time so there's no nasty surprises when I get back from vacation while some bot has been rampaging through my site? Of think of it this way: today's offer is designed to get people using Rackspace by lowering barriers. You're hoping people will like it and stay, or be too lazy to move. Don't you think the potential of an unlimited bill is another significant barrier in people's minds? I bet you're losing sign-ups.
fotcorn 13y ago
We switched to DigitalOcean a month ago. The servers are 2x faster than rackspace (same RAM size) and we pay only half the price. DigitalOcean doesn't have all the features of rackspace (additional storage, private networks etc.), but the much better performance is everything we need. https://www.digitalocean.com/pricing https://www.digitalocean.com/pricing
- kordless 13y ago
  SSD drives make a huge impact on server performance.
- cnlwsu 13y ago
  is there any benchmarking in comparison with rackspaces SSDs?
  - jnoller 13y ago
    Here is a benchmark from the Rackspace site on SSD performance via Cloud Block Storage: (PDF) http://c744563d32d0468a7cf1-2fe04d8054667ffada6c4002813eccf0.r76.cf1.rackcdn.com/downloads/pdfs/CloudBlockStorage_Benchmark.pdf http://c744563d32d0468a7cf1-2fe04d8054667ffada6c4002813eccf0...
  - jread 13y ago
    I've conducted some independent tests of various block storage options with Rackspace, EC2, HP and GCE. Here are links providing a CSV of the results (may take a few seconds to generate). A value of 100 signifies near performance parity to a baremetal SAS reference system. Overall, Rackspace SSD is performant, but lacks the consistency of EBS PIOPs or GCE persistent storage. IOPS http://app.cloudharmony.com/cloudgrade/api/query/cloudharmony.disk_iops?scopeFilter={%22compute_service_id%22:[%22aws:ec2%22,%22hp:compute%22,%22google:gce%22,%22rackspace:servers%22]}&limit=100&csv http://app.cloudharmony.com/cloudgrade/api/query/cloudharmon... IO Consistency http://app.cloudharmony.com/cloudgrade/api/query/cloudharmony.disk_consistency?scopeFilter={%22compute_service_id%22:[%22aws:ec2%22,%22hp:compute%22,%22google:gce%22,%22rackspace:servers%22]}&limit=100&csv http://app.cloudharmony.com/cloudgrade/api/query/cloudharmon...
indeyets 13y ago
EC2 is way cheaper medium utilized reserved "m1.large" instance, which has 7.5Gb of RAM + 2*420Gb of local storage costs $1272 a year max (less if you don't use it all the time). If you go with heavy-utilization instance it's even cheaper. see https://aws.amazon.com/ec2/pricing/#tabm1 https://aws.amazon.com/ec2/pricing/#tabm1 Rackspace's 8GB/320GB instance costs $4200 a year. That's quite a difference
- darkarmani 13y ago
  You are comparing the reserved price which isn't apples to apples. Even so, you are correct. The m1.large rate in the east is $0.240/hour and the rackspace instances is $0.48/hour. http://www.rackspace.com/cloud/public-pricing/ http://www.rackspace.com/cloud/public-pricing/ Also, don't forget that the heavy reservation is billed for every hour in the term, not when you have it turned on. > With this RI [Heavy], you pay a little higher upfront payment than Medium Utilization RIs, a significantly lower hourly usage fee, and you’re charged that lower hourly rate for _every hour in the Reserved Instance term you purchase_. https://aws.amazon.com/ec2/reserved-instances/ https://aws.amazon.com/ec2/reserved-instances/
  - indeyets 13y ago
    > You are comparing the reserved price which isn't apples to apples I would be glad to compare with Rackspace's "reserved" prices if they had one :) > Also, don't forget that the heavy reservation is billed for every hour in the term, not when you have it turned on. That's why I compared prices to "medium utilization". Again, Rackspace doesn't have prepaid option similar to "heavy utilization". And I didn't mention instances reserved for "3 years" which result in even larger discount, if you're interested in long-term solution
- kordless 13y ago
  The Rackspace instance you are referencing has 4 vCPUs in it - the m1.large on Amazon has 2. Also, don't forget the prepay amounts on EC2 reserved instances in your calculations! The prepay for 1 year on the m1.large is $243, making a reserved m1.large $1434 a year (365 days * 24 hours * $0.136/hour + $243).

by 300bps 13y ago

jnoller 13y ago

Yes, we're actually very cost competitive for VMs - and cloud files includes a global CDN. I'm really, really, really happy this put us back on your radar. If you run into issues or have questions - jesse.noller@rackspace.com - my door is always open.

NonEUCitizen 13y ago
What's the URL to your pricing page?
- jnoller 13y ago
  http://www.rackspace.com/cloud/servers/ http://www.rackspace.com/cloud/servers/ http://www.rackspace.com/cloud/files/pricing/ http://www.rackspace.com/cloud/files/pricing/
  - NonEUCitizen 13y ago
    Do you support setting a cap on cloud files? e.g. customer sets some limit, say, $500/month, and if it ever hits that number it stops serving files instead of running up charges. And/or do you support triggers, so customer gets an email when charges run up to $200, then another email at $300, etc. ?
    - russell_h 13y ago
      We don't currently support hard limits, but we've partnered with Cloudability, which lets you set budget alerts: https://cloudability.com/rackspace/ https://cloudability.com/rackspace/
      - groks 13y ago
        Not really good enough. It's unacceptable to ask your customers to expose themselves to unlimited billing liability. This is one thing that Google gets right and yourselves and Amazon don't: the ability to set a budget. I bet if I didn't pay my bill on time you'd cut me off pretty quick. Why not let me tell you how much I've got to spend ahead of time so there's no nasty surprises when I get back from vacation while some bot has been rampaging through my site? Of think of it this way: today's offer is designed to get people using Rackspace by lowering barriers. You're hoping people will like it and stay, or be too lazy to move. Don't you think the potential of an unlimited bill is another significant barrier in people's minds? I bet you're losing sign-ups.

fotcorn 13y ago

We switched to DigitalOcean a month ago. The servers are 2x faster than rackspace (same RAM size) and we pay only half the price. DigitalOcean doesn't have all the features of rackspace (additional storage, private networks etc.), but the much better performance is everything we need. https://www.digitalocean.com/pricing https://www.digitalocean.com/pricing

kordless 13y ago
SSD drives make a huge impact on server performance.
cnlwsu 13y ago
is there any benchmarking in comparison with rackspaces SSDs?
- jnoller 13y ago
  Here is a benchmark from the Rackspace site on SSD performance via Cloud Block Storage: (PDF) http://c744563d32d0468a7cf1-2fe04d8054667ffada6c4002813eccf0.r76.cf1.rackcdn.com/downloads/pdfs/CloudBlockStorage_Benchmark.pdf http://c744563d32d0468a7cf1-2fe04d8054667ffada6c4002813eccf0...
- jread 13y ago
  I've conducted some independent tests of various block storage options with Rackspace, EC2, HP and GCE. Here are links providing a CSV of the results (may take a few seconds to generate). A value of 100 signifies near performance parity to a baremetal SAS reference system. Overall, Rackspace SSD is performant, but lacks the consistency of EBS PIOPs or GCE persistent storage. IOPS http://app.cloudharmony.com/cloudgrade/api/query/cloudharmony.disk_iops?scopeFilter={%22compute_service_id%22:[%22aws:ec2%22,%22hp:compute%22,%22google:gce%22,%22rackspace:servers%22]}&limit=100&csv http://app.cloudharmony.com/cloudgrade/api/query/cloudharmon... IO Consistency http://app.cloudharmony.com/cloudgrade/api/query/cloudharmony.disk_consistency?scopeFilter={%22compute_service_id%22:[%22aws:ec2%22,%22hp:compute%22,%22google:gce%22,%22rackspace:servers%22]}&limit=100&csv http://app.cloudharmony.com/cloudgrade/api/query/cloudharmon...

indeyets 13y ago

EC2 is way cheaper medium utilized reserved "m1.large" instance, which has 7.5Gb of RAM + 2*420Gb of local storage costs $1272 a year max (less if you don't use it all the time). If you go with heavy-utilization instance it's even cheaper. see https://aws.amazon.com/ec2/pricing/#tabm1 https://aws.amazon.com/ec2/pricing/#tabm1 Rackspace's 8GB/320GB instance costs $4200 a year. That's quite a difference

darkarmani 13y ago
You are comparing the reserved price which isn't apples to apples. Even so, you are correct. The m1.large rate in the east is $0.240/hour and the rackspace instances is $0.48/hour. http://www.rackspace.com/cloud/public-pricing/ http://www.rackspace.com/cloud/public-pricing/ Also, don't forget that the heavy reservation is billed for every hour in the term, not when you have it turned on. > With this RI [Heavy], you pay a little higher upfront payment than Medium Utilization RIs, a significantly lower hourly usage fee, and you’re charged that lower hourly rate for _every hour in the Reserved Instance term you purchase_. https://aws.amazon.com/ec2/reserved-instances/ https://aws.amazon.com/ec2/reserved-instances/
- indeyets 13y ago
  > You are comparing the reserved price which isn't apples to apples I would be glad to compare with Rackspace's "reserved" prices if they had one :) > Also, don't forget that the heavy reservation is billed for every hour in the term, not when you have it turned on. That's why I compared prices to "medium utilization". Again, Rackspace doesn't have prepaid option similar to "heavy utilization". And I didn't mention instances reserved for "3 years" which result in even larger discount, if you're interested in long-term solution
kordless 13y ago
The Rackspace instance you are referencing has 4 vCPUs in it - the m1.large on Amazon has 2. Also, don't forget the prepay amounts on EC2 reserved instances in your calculations! The prepay for 1 year on the m1.large is $243, making a reserved m1.large $1434 a year (365 days * 24 hours * $0.136/hour + $243).