Microsoft Azure or Amazon AWS?

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CBSYS

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#175656 7-Jul-2015 15:27

Need a Linux server to host cloud based software. 4 x core CPU 6-8 Gib Ram.
Which one do you guys think is better? Azure or AWS?

thanks a lot for your help!

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Amanzi
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#1338613 7-Jul-2015 15:29

Why are you limiting your choices to Azure or Amazon? I'd recommend going with Vultr - https://www.vultr.com/

graemeh

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#1338622 7-Jul-2015 15:39

I'd say either of them will do the job. What else do you think you will need in the future, this may help you choose.

If you have a lot of heavy usage but are flexible about when it is done you might find spot pricing at Amazon saves you some cash.

nathan

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#1338631 7-Jul-2015 15:58

Define better

timmmay

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#1338675 7-Jul-2015 16:56

Far more info needed. Application, load pattern, uptime requirements. Vps may be better option, amazon spot, amazon reserved instances, maybe aws two smaller machines with load balancer if you need high uptime.

CBSYS

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Master Geek

#1391849 22-Sep-2015 12:43

I don't want to limit the options, maybe these are only two I knew.
Vultr looks good too.

All I need is Linux based server to install my cloud-based application for my customer to use.
I forgot to say that currently the application is running on a physical server which I owned, sitting in Auckland Data Center.
We are upgrading our application next month, so we are thinking to rent a VM.

It might be a better option.

To saying better, I mean less hassles, cheaper prices and maybe better performance.
We need to make decision very soon, Thanks very much for your helping. Cheers,

amanzi

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#1391880 22-Sep-2015 13:01

If cheap prices and better performance are your two main criteria, then I can highly recommend Vultr. Azure and AWS are both great environments for running VMs, but one of the key requirements I have for running Linux VMs in the cloud is being able to get console access for troubleshooting purposes - with Vultr you can VNC onto the server's console to see what's going on; with AWS I believe you can retrieve the console output by running some commands (though you're not seeing the console in real-time); and with Azure there is no console access for Linux.
Hope that helps.

edit:
Just adding that feature-wise, Azure and AWS will beat Vultr hands-down. So if you want things like extensive API access to VMs, scalability, advanced storage configuration, or integration with their respective platforms, then you should consider either AWS or Azure - and in this case, if you're running Linux I would personally lean more towards AWS just for the ability to get to the console output.

CBSYS

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Master Geek

#1391886 22-Sep-2015 13:17

Hi Amanzi, thanks very much for your advice.
I'm not that technical, but compare the $0.190 plan(Vultr) vs. m4.large (AWS), which one is better? Cheers,

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timmmay

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#1391890 22-Sep-2015 13:23

On AWS you get full root access to your virtual machine, you can do anything you at least as much as you can with a standard VPS type setup. I tend to use putty to SSH into linux instances.

Vultr: $0.19/hr = 8 cores, 16GB RAM, 300GB SSD.
AWS M4.Large $0.126.hr = 2 cores, 8GB RAM, plus $0.1/GB/month for SSD storage. If you need a lot of storage this can get expensive, or you can use cheaper storage.

With AWS you can get significant discounts if you commit to a term using reserved instances, down to $0.070/hr.

amanzi

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#1391892 22-Sep-2015 13:25

The M4.large has 2 CPUs and 8GB RAM, while the $0.190 server from Vultr has double that. So specs-wise, the Vultr server is better but is more expensive.

amanzi

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#1391895 22-Sep-2015 13:27

timmmay: On AWS you get full root access to your virtual machine, you can do anything you at least as much as you can with a standard VPS type setup. I tend to use putty to SSH into linux instances.

Having console access is useful for troubleshooting. On more than one occasion I've encountered a linux server that was down and I couldn't SSH to it - having console access in this scenario is useful as you can see what messages are being dumped onto the console before rebooting it.

timmmay

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#1391898 22-Sep-2015 13:30

Good point. AWS does support it, details here. AWS is the leader in cloud, they have an incredibly comprehensive portfolio which is wide and deep, they're not much their systems can't do. They're not always the cheapest though.

toyonut

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#1391910 22-Sep-2015 13:42

Honestly, I would weigh up the costs using whichever calculators they have available, then I would sign up for an account at each of your chosen locations and just set it up and test. The cost will be minimal and you will have a better understanding of how AWS, Azure or any of the others work for you, what access they provide, how they perform and how the management works.

Something to bear in mind, In Azure, you will not have any SLA with a single VM. I don't know what AWS is like for that, it would pay to check. You need to have two VM's running your app across fault domains in order to have an SLA with Azure. Quite a few hosting providers are like that I believe. If using IAAS, you are responsible for it and need to back it up etc.

Try Vultr using this link and get us both some credit:

http://www.vultr.com/?ref=7033587-3B

Regs

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Snowflake

#1391919 22-Sep-2015 14:02

more questions:
* do you need to do file level backups
* do you need to do virtual machine level backups of the Linux instance
* do you need to run 24x7, or can you turn on/off based on a script
* could you run two smaller machines with a load balancer to get higher availability (how critical is this machine?)
* which distro of Linux do you need to run. Is the distro "supported" by the cloud vendor
* if you decide you don't run to run in the cloud any more, can you download/migrate the machine back out of the cloud

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CBSYS

133 posts

Master Geek

#1391949 22-Sep-2015 14:39

Hi Regs,

Thanks for your help.
please see the following for answers, even i don't really understand all of them.

* do you need to do file level backups -- Only the data base
* do you need to do virtual machine level backups of the Linux instance -- Maybe not
* do you need to run 24x7, or can you turn on/off based on a script -- Yes, need to run 24x7
* could you run two smaller machines with a load balancer to get higher availability (how critical is this machine?) -- Yes, I spouse so.
* which distro of Linux do you need to run. Is the distro "supported" by the cloud vendor -- I don't really understand this one, but our application is written by Java.
* if you decide you don't run to run in the cloud any more, can you download/migrate the machine back out of the cloud -- It will be on the cloud all the time, we are providing SAAS service.

timmmay

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#1391960 22-Sep-2015 14:51

I think you need some time with a solution / infrastructure architect. Looks to me like you could be heading for a disaster.

Some thoughts:
- If you need to run 24x7 with high uptime you should be looking at a cluster of machines with a load balancer, ideally geographically distributed to prevent against data center outages (they happen). If you go for geographic distribution you need to consider your database architecture, master slave, replication, etc. If you're in AWS you need to consider whether you install your own database or use their RDS (relational database service). RDS is far more reliable, pretty cheap, and means you can probably run with a smaller VM instance. Load balancer is free on AWS, from memory, and a new development is you can distribute globally.
- Backups are critical to consider. What if the VM is lost? You probably need both file and database backups. You may need versioned backups.
- Do you need nodes in different countries for performance, or even just a basic CDN for static resources? Pretty easy on AWS with CloudFront.

Without knowing what you're trying to achieve it's difficult to give good advice. I studied AWS for months, and have a fairly extensive background in solution architecture, you probably need someone like me or maybe a bit more infrastructure oriented to help - people with these skills are expensive.

AWS has a whole bunch of services that can do almost everything you need, and most are pretty cheap.

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