Got Cloud-Computing? Ditch Your Cdn

Do I need a Cdn if I have Cloud Computing?

Over last year or so, the term Cloud Computing has been making headlines. There are some new entrants into the Cloud Computing industry. The idea is simple, you have all these computers or servers directly associated to the cloud (The Internet) and you have huge computing power at your fingertips. clubs like Rackspace, GoGrid, Amazon, and At&T are all offering one form of Cloud Computing or another.

Hostgator Vps

The services available from these clubs range from straightforward "Cloud Storage", to fully scalable virtual servers in the cloud.

When to use Cloud Computing

The great thing about these services is the instant setup and "unlimited scalability". When you want a new website, with a few clicks of a mouse you bring up a new Linux or Windows box. They even make it easy for you by pre-installing services like Sql, Mail, and in some cases applications like Wowza or Windows Media streaming server.

The setup process is ordinarily wizard driven and they take the guesswork out of setting up server software and services.

A merge of cloud-computing providers even partner with content Delivery Networks (Cdn) to offer Cloud Storage. Essentially you put your files in the cloud storehouse and they are on a Cdn.

Sounds good, why do I even reconsider a Cdn?

All of these services are on virtualized boxes and shared resources. They are not dedicated. The services are not fully managed either. You would be responsible for software updates, patches, licenses, etc; although you unmistakably shouldn't ever be concerned about hardware or bandwidth. The idea behind cloud-computing is that you just pay more and they dedicate more resources to your servers.

If you have an existing data center or web servers, you may hesitate captivating your web sites or web servers to a cloud-computing Provider. This may mean abandoning hardware and software you've already invested in. You may reconsider bringing up new servers in a cloud environment to sacrifice costs or gain flexibility.

If you have a lot of web sites it may make sense to reconsider a cloud supplier versus a general web host provider. You will have more operate over your domains and depending on your supplier you may be able to scale easier. Plus you would have full root passage to the web servers to configure them any way you want. It would be like a dedicated server box from a web host provider.

If you plan to use a cloud computing firm in lieu of a Cdn, mental you can just build your own Cdn within their cloud, think again! Start asking your cloud-computing seller these questions: how many data centers are they in? What kind of peering arrangements do they have? What are their peek bandwidth capabilities/egress capabilities? Where in the world are they hosted? Will your servers be replicated in any place nearby the world or just in the Us, just in one data center? Are there more costs complex for Europe, Asia, or Australia delivery? What if you need streaming servers for videos, can they do that? What about mobile delivery? Do they offer token-based authentication? Pseudo Flash Streaming? What about encoding and transcoding? Does your cloud-computing seller have any content administration software or video? Do they reserve live video delivery? These are all questions to reconsider if you think you want to use a cloud-computing firm instead of a Cdn.

A tier 1 Cdn like Limelight or Akamai will have thousands of servers to cache your content nearby the world. They will offer all those ancillary services associated to content delivery. A Cdn will reserve streaming and Http progressive downloads. They will probably have Adobe, Microsoft and Apple servers. A Cdn will be able to reserve live events. On top of that you will be able to accelerate your whole site, with Akamai's Dsa or Limelight's Limelight Site services. You are not tiny to just videos with a Cdn, any piece of content can be delivered via a Cdn.

You will probably find that integrating a Cdn is easier and less time captivating than bringing up new servers and maintaining them. In some cases with a Cdn it may be as straightforward as pointing a Cname to the Cdn or just uploading your content to them.

Pricing

Certainly, the pricing of cloud-computing is more captivating than a Cdn. But you will need to frame out what your needs are and find the right combinations of services.

Mosso by Rackspace

0/month 50 Gb of storehouse space 500 Gb of monthly bandwidth 10,000 compute cycles. Compute cycles measure how much processing time your applications wish on the Mosso cloud. 10,000 compute cycles are practically equivalent to the monthly capacity of a server with a 2.8 Ghz modern processor. Per month Prices go up from there.

GoGrid:

$.19/hour of Ram (add more Ram, pay more) 6/month per 1Gb of Ram plus $.50/Gb of exchange outbound 10Gb of storehouse included $.15/Gb thereafter Free Load Balancing with F5 load balancers

Amazon Ec2:

$.10/hour up to $.80/hour for "On Demand" 5 setup up to 00 setup + $.03/hour up to $.24/hour for a "Reserved" server $.10/Gb on inbound traffic $.10 to $.17/Gb for outbound traffic Storage is extra straight through the S3 service Other services are extra

At&T Synaptic storehouse as a Service:

Pricing not disclosed
Cdn Pricing

Pricing for Cdn service will vary greatly depending on what you want and where you get if from. With the Tier 1 Cdns expect a minimum commitment per month and to sign a 1-year contract. With a Tier 2 Cdn like Level3, Cdnetwork, Edgecast, etc, you may get a month-to-month ageement and lower prices, but you may not get the same service either.

Pricing for Cdns will be in any place from $.05/Gb to .00 or more per Gb depending on what you commit to. Keep in mind only the largest contracts in the hundreds of Tbs to Petabytes will get down to the $.05/Gb range. When you add on ancillary services, you will add to your monthly bill as well.

It appears that Rackspace wins on pricing, although as you add on more Cpu Cycles and storehouse they may increase significantly. Rackspace is also known for their buyer service, which will count for a lot. Amazon's pricing seems convoluted and confusing, it looks cheap on the outside, but if you add up all your inbound/outbound, storehouse and class of service, their pricing isn't too aggressive. Also, Amazon is not known for buyer service at all. Getting a hold of tech reserve may be a chore. GoGrid's pricing is very close to Rackspaces' and their product seems top notch, also the free load balancing counts for a lot, so don't count out GoGrid. Finally, At&T has only just announced their cloud storehouse product. Their web site doesn't disclose pricing. Good luck getting someone at At&T on the phone that can help you understand their product.

Conclusion

If you're seeing at Cloud Computing to increase website performance, you may reconsider a Cdn first. gawk why your site is under performing. Do you need more databases, do you need more mail servers? Do you need more domains? These are all reasons to get cloud computing. But if you have a lot of videos, music or software downloads or your pages are sluggish, then a Cdn is the way to go!

Ideally, your best explication will be to use both a cloud-computing firm and a Cdn. This will give you optimal performance, flexibility, and reliability.

If you have any questions about this topic, please post them here.

Got Cloud-Computing? Ditch Your Cdn