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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.

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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

SSD drives make a huge impact on server performance.

is there any benchmarking in comparison with rackspaces SSDs?

Here is a benchmark from the Rackspace site on SSD performance via Cloud Block Storage: (PDF) http://c744563d32d0468a7cf1-2fe04d8054667ffada6c4002813eccf0...

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/cloudharmon...

IO Consistency http://app.cloudharmony.com/cloudgrade/api/query/cloudharmon...

There's also an excellent writeup by GlusterFS contributor Jeff Darcy:

http://pl.atyp.us/wordpress/index.php/2012/10/rackspace-bloc...

But DO is a basic service, only VMs, with little control over network, storage, etc.

DigitalOcean doesn't have all the features of rackspace

Looks like no Windows, so no go for me.

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.

What's the URL to your pricing page?

http://www.rackspace.com/cloud/servers/ http://www.rackspace.com/cloud/files/pricing/

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. ?

We don't currently support hard limits, but we've partnered with Cloudability, which lets you set budget alerts: https://cloudability.com/rackspace/

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.

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

Rackspace's 8GB/320GB instance costs $4200 a year.

That's quite a difference

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/

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/

> 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

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).

$0.136 is "Light utilization". I referenced "medium utilization" which is $0.084

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