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Cloud hosting technology, even though it’s fairly new, has proven to be an excellent way to host your website. Cloud hosting is an especially attractive and cost-conscious option for websites that may need access to server resources on a dynamic basis. Choosing a cloud platform is based on individual needs. After the comparative study results, you will definitely be able to find a winner but, there are many more cloud platforms available and the questions you really need to ask yourself are-
- How important is it for you to have an platform which supports multiple operating systems?
- How important is the control interface of the cloud computing provider?
- How important are the support features of the cloud computing provider?
- How important is it that the cloud computing provider offer free support?
If the answer for all the above questions are ranging between moderate to highly important then, you need not research any further as the clear winner by any means would be Amazon EC2! Not only compared to Rackspace, but, to any other cloud platform like 3tera, lunacloud or Reliacloud. Amazon EC2 is not only the best in the computing category(IaaS), but, also comes out with flying colors when compared to Google App Engine (PaaS). Amazon and Rackspace are similar in their abilities to create new server instances within minutes, to dynamically scale as your visitor/requirements change, and to pay for only the server resources utilized. No wonder both companies are highly acclaimed. But, Rackspace still lags behind in many features that Amazon EC2 is able to provide. Here is a comparative analysis report-
Storage
Amazon excels over Rackspace in terms of extra storage. It offers EBS (Elastic Block Service), which allows you to create huge blocks of file system-level storage, which can be mounted on any instance. This way, you can pay for the allocated Gigabyte. Such an approach is very much significant for those sites, which need considerable amount of storage. It’s a great choice for corporate giants, and even start-ups. Amazon EC2 delivers where Rackspace fails and basically Rackspace is meant to serve as an intermediate option for mid-size businesses that require a balance between the two extremes of EC2.
Security
Amazon EC2 comes out to be the clear winner here too, as the security settings are far more superior to that of Rackspace, which is downright mediocre. Amazon EC2, when creating your Instance, will have you configure two items – A Key Pair and a Security Zone. The key pair is a requirement for building an Amazon EC2 Instance. When you’re creating your first Instance, Amazon will force you to create a Key Pair, giving it a name and then automatically downloading the Private Key to your computer. This will be required to access your instance for the first time. The Security Zone is an firewall that rests above your instance, overriding any firewall rules you later place on it. Rackspace does not provide security for your initial instances. They provide a root account password on the computer screen and then they email it to your ID. The emailing part is pretty juvenile in terms of maintaining security for your root password.
Pricing
Oddly enough, Amazon EC2 emerges to be the winner in this segment too. Amazon’s smallest Instance, Small, is 1.7GB of RAM and 160GB of Disk, while the equivalent RackspaceCloud Instance is 2GB of RAM and 80GB of disk, but the RackspaceCloud Instance is around $26.00 more per month, for 80GB less storage. That pricing discrepancy is also just for the on-demand Instance. If you’re willing to commit to a reserved Instance at Amazon EC2, then the Amazon EC2 Instance ends up being about the same price as the low-end Rackspace Cloud Instance.
Sign up
The Sign up for Rackspace is a much lengthy affair with a lot of data entering required after which, their representatives call you to confirm your billing address. It almost takes an hour for the complete procedure to pan out. Whereas, The Amazon.com EC2 signup is almost non-existant, provided you’ve already purchased something from Amazon.com previously. If so, you already have your EC2 account credentials. The clear winner in the Sign up parameter is Amazon EC2.
Amazon’s Elastic Compute Cloud server Instances come out on top of the comparative study as predicted earlier. They provide better overall pricing, easier account signup,better storage and much better security. Rackspace Cloud is the new kid on the block for Cloud Computing and on-demand Instances, but they need to make some major changes to their overall service if they are going to give Amazon EC2 serious competition going forward.
For highly competitive pricing and excellent web hosting support services do contact InstaCarma today!
