We will help developers: advantages and disadvantages of loud, we will provide 1000 cloud servers in the Netherlands and the USA for free

Like any large hosting provider, we have idle infrastructure facilities, and in quite a large number. 3 years ago, we announced a cloud virtual server service in the Netherlands and the USA, which was developed by our partner, LeaseWeb, in the hope of getting some users of Digital Ocean that was already gaining popularity. We, as a partner, decided to take part in this project and bought a fairly large part of the cloud infrastructure, so large that we decided to give the first 1000 cloud servers at a lower price (cheaper than the cost price). Today we want to go even further, consider all the advantages and disadvantages and offer the same number of cloud servers:

1 vCPU / 1GB RAM / 40GB SSD / 1 Gbps 4TB
2 vCPU / 2GB RAM / 60GB SSD / 1 Gbps 6TB

FREE for developers with Habrahabr, on demand (it could be months or even a year), but why?
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Cloud VPS became a good option on the way to a dedicated server, until we announced VPS (KVM) with dedicated drives, which surpassed the dedicated entry-level servers in performance , and were cheaper than older cloud VPS tariffs, but containing more resources and buns - convenient control panel, the ability to mount your own image, the ability to get Windows for half a year for free. At the moment, we offer a 30% discount for Habr's users on a unique analogue of entry-level servers, which was invented by us for you, a promotional code is available in the article: the whole truth about VPS (KVM) E5-2650 v4 (6 Cores) 10GB DDR4 240GB SSD 1Gbps from $ 20 or how to share the server correctly? Options available with RAID1 and RAID10, up to 24 cores and up to 40GB DDR4 RAM. Most customers have already switched to these solutions and at the moment we have a surplus of VPS from which we don’t want to give up, as they are still a good option for beginners, but we don’t want them to just “warm the air”.

Here, on Habré, the old servers were once distributed to those in need, but no one distributed new and necessary, especially to a large number of developers, and even for a long time. We decided to go even further this time, and without any contests, to provide for a demand period (it could be a month, half a year, a year or even more) cloud-based VPS, which are always in reserve and idle in the Netherlands or the USA, one of two types, FREE, and you can order them here :

[S]
Cores (vCPU) 1 Core
Memory (vRAM) 1 GB
Quota 40 GB (SSD Storage)
Port 1000 Mbps
Traffic 4 TB
DDOS-protection: up to 500 000 pps or 1 Gbps
From $ 5.99, FREE for you

or

[M]
Cores (vCPU) 2 Core
Memory (vRAM) 2 GB
Quota 60 GB (SSD Storage)
Port 1000 Mbps
Traffic 6 TB
DDOS-protection: up to 500 000 pps or 1 Gbps
From $ 7.99, FREE for you

Why exactly they? They are good for developers who want to have an environment for experiments and we have them. We try not to create older tariffs L, XL, because we can offer people the best solution - VPS (KVM) with dedicated drives . After all, they are often slightly more expensive, and in fact cheaper, since they include more resources and traffic, as well as additional amenities.

Free Terms

• Place an order, register in the system, go to the payment stage, but do not pay (so that the order is created, otherwise the order will not be issued).
• Specify here ten-digit order number in the comments. First of all, we will issue VPS in the USA, regardless of the location you choose on our site, since we have a larger% of the infrastructure there that is idle, but if you need the Netherlands, open the ticket and explain this need, most likely we will be able to provide and there).

If you need an additional paid panel of the ISP Manager type or a Windows license for the M tariff, then, alas, you will have to pay the panel or Windows in addition, your VPS will become paid, but the price will be equal to the cost of the license.

• We have the right to take a VPS from you at any time in case a buyer is found on your cloud-based VPS, without warning. Sorry, but the client who paid for the service should not expect when it will be activated, the only thing is that we can notify you that your VPS will most likely be needed tomorrow, having assessed the intensity of orders and the number of remaining free VPS. That is, always have a fresh backup! Of course, that first of all VPS will be withdrawn from those who placed the order earlier and used the service longer. We still leave some reserve, so as not to take the VPS immediately the next day after the issue. That is, from a month or more, you will probably work, and perhaps even half a year or a year, as customers constantly move to a new solution , getting growth. If you want to switch to the paid rate and thank us, retaining the exclusive right to use the service, we can offer you to pay for your VPS, while offering up to 3 months of free use as a bonus, provided that you pay for the long-term service. When paying for services for a year, the bonus will be 3 months, and if paid for half a year or 3 months, two or one month, respectively. To receive the bonus, simply contact the sales department, indicating this condition of the promotion.
• Free distribution will be completed by the end of February or upon reaching 1000 provided servers. That is, February 28 is the last day when you can get VPS for free use, just by leaving a comment with the order number. Any friends? Tell them, order for them if they are not Habr's readers and do not have the opportunity to leave a comment.
• We do not limit the number of VPS in one hand , but you must explain the need for more than one VPS. In this case, before February 28, you will receive only one VPS per person, you can get the rest of the ordered virtual servers after February 28, provided they are available and in turn (you can see the queue in the comments, as well as fix the number).

Advantages and disadvantages of cloud VPS

We want to be as honest with you as possible and therefore we will consider the issue in detail. Can a cloud-based VPS be more reliable than a dedicated server? And more effective than VPS (KVM) with dedicated drives? So many hidden "minuses" exist! And it’s not a sin to compare them with our new product.

• Since the storage on the cloud platform is shared - you will receive no more than 1000 IOPS of storage performance. This is much more than a hard disk can provide - 70 IOPS in case of accidental read and write, SATA interface and rotation speed of 7200 revolutions per minute and 150 IOPS with SAS and rotation speed of 15000 revolutions per minute. But you will get much less than using a dedicated SSD - 50 or more times, because one drive can provide up to 70,000 IOPS, and if the RAID - even more. And of course, you will get a big delay when interacting with the storage due to the large number of virtual machine users, this is inevitable, the interrupt distribution algorithms cannot work as efficiently as in the case of a dedicated server, where you yourself can set weights and be more confident indicators due to fewer variables.
• You will get less guaranteed bandwidth. Yes, we can provide up to 1 Gbps per cloud virtual server, but the speed will vary depending on the number of clients and the bandwidth utilization level at the site where your cloud server is located. And if, in the case of VPS (KVM) with dedicated drives, you have only 2-11 neighbors, depending on the configuration, then the number of neighbors is many times larger, and the configurations are very diverse. Are you sure that the data center distributed resources utilization in an optimal way and the infrastructure does not contain hidden bottlenecks?
• To build a cloud infrastructure, the data center uses old processors, since they just need to copy them somewhere. However, the processors are not older than the E3-1230, which already pleases, even if it is not quite the ancient G850. However, this means that all newer instructions may not be available to you. It is likely that your process will work several times or even ten times slower than on the new E5-2650v4 processor and VPS (KVM) with dedicated drives. Although, let's be honest, it is not always necessary. For some types of interrupts, the difference will not be significant.
• You will not have a convenient control panel, such as VM Manager on a VPS (KVM) with dedicated drives, which will allow you not only to reinstall your server, but also mount your own ISO, use VNC (analog of the virtual console for dedicated servers) and install such paid control panel, like ISP Manager, in one click with the OS and for free! You will have to pay for a Windows license - there will be no test period of half a year! The data center cooperates with Microsoft on SPLA and therefore does not provide such an opportunity, and cloud VPS is their product. We do not cooperate with Microsoft on SPLA and have the full right to ensure the ability to install a test version of Windows without paying for YOUR products. We have no agreements on this matter with Microsoft. Therefore, blackmailing us with the inability to provide a test version of Windows to people, as sales of SPLA licenses are falling, will not work.
• Moreover, you will not get a cheap price for traffic overspending and will pay it for $ 15 per TB, if the data center is favorable and considers it in bulk, while for VPS (KVM) with dedicated storage we can provide additional traffic on Price $ 15 for 10 TB at any time, much cheaper!
• No additional IP, except IPv6. Since the cloud platform is large and the prices for virtual servers in the cloud are extremely low, and the number of IPv4 addresses at the data center is limited and it is rather difficult to get new subnets, as well as to encourage sales of dedicated servers - the data center does not allow to buy additional cloud networks. VPS additional IPv4 addresses. Which is very strange, since the cost of an IP address in the data center is comparable to the cost of a cloud-based VPS server and starts at $ 4 / month (yes, we sold VPS for less than IP for shares). Therefore, those who need a lot of addresses - please look towards our VPS (KVM) with dedicated drives. Although we limit the possibility of ordering additional addresses to three by default, we allow in some cases to order more if the neighbors in the node have not expressed a desire to use their add. ah pi, since the IPv4 addresses on the node are limited to 32. Why? For the same reason. This data center stimulates sales of dedicated servers and therefore does not give too many addresses, even to those who need so many addresses for business.

But what about the "+"?

• This is primarily the price. Cloud virtual servers will be cheap due to all these factors, and prices start at $ 5.99 ($ ​​3.99 at the time of sales, but since we now intend to distribute to Habr for free, prices have risen for direct subscribers) per month for configuration 1 vCPU / 1GB RAM / 40GB SSD / 1 Gbps 4TB. Yes, we compete on price, and still very significant in quality! And the initial tariffs are very competitive with our VPS (KVM) with dedicated drives, as they are magic, but the prices and configurations, even taking into account the 30% discount for Habrahabr users , start at $ 20 per VPS (KVM) - E5-2650v4 ( 6 Cores) / 10GB DDR4 / 240GB SSD / 1Gbps 10TB.
• The second "+" - reliability. In case of a hardware failure, the cloud platform will restart your VPS on another machine without physical human intervention, so your data will be well protected. This is good, but in cases of a serious problem on a cloud platform, you will most likely get more simple or even loss of your data (a big mistake can be made in a large system). In this case, VPS (KVM) with dedicated drives can sometimes be a more reliable solution, since there are fewer failure and risk factors, the system is not so complicated, and it is easier to restore work. This is especially noticeable at the initial stages, when the cloud platform is only starting up and not all the errors and bottlenecks are known to architects and administrators. I remember all the big clouds falling. AWS lain for two days, interrupting the transmission of important data from patients' cardiac stimulants as a result of an error in synchronization, which caused an avalanche effect and a long recovery. The Russian cloud Selectel was also lying, as someone had stolen a piece of optical fiber connecting the data centers, among which the cloud of physical persons was distributed. The data center solution we proposed lay as well, since the developers chose a not very reliable option of shared storage, and although it was duplicated, some of the subscribers were left without data. It also happens. Nevertheless, for a long time now, the solution of the data center has been working “without a single break”. I immediately remembered for some reason a video on the topic:
  
  
• The third plus is the availability of Asian traffic at a really cheap price. If you notice, the cloud servers offered by us are available in NL, US and SIN . Yes, in Singapore the cost is much higher, but the initial tariff starts at $ 6.99 and this is for the option with 4 TB of traffic! Yes, certainly the data center hopes that the majority of subscribers will not consume this limit. But you can do it! And the traffic limit is very similar to the limit for dedicated servers in Asia. It is for this reason that we still cannot offer our VPS (KVM) with dedicated drives in this region, they obviously will not cost $ 20 or even $ 29, their minimum price there is $ 89 for VPS (KVM) - E5-2650v4 (6 Cores) / 10GB DDR4 / 240GB SSD / 1Gbps 10TB, instead of $ 29 in the Netherlands. Therefore, they will not be able to compete with XL, which is provided at a much lower price - $ 38.99 and is only slightly inferior in resources, and even surpasses our solution in the number of cores. But we are negotiating.

findings

If you do not have the money for excellent productive VPS (KVM) with dedicated drives and you want to have a simple reliable solution for $ 5.99 or $ 7.99 per month (and in your case for free) - cloud virtual servers can be a good option for you. But in case you need more bandwidth and more traffic, a more convenient control panel and higher performance, as well as lower latency - VPS (KVM) with dedicated drives cannot be “killed”, especially in comparison with L and XL variants when the price difference is not so great.

In any case, if you do not have a lot of money now, but you want to succeed, you can order VPS (KVM) with dedicated drives and get a 30% discount for users and readers of Habrahabr. A promo code for everyone is available in the article: the whole truth about VPS (KVM) E5-2650 v4 (6 Cores) 10GB DDR4 240GB SSD 1Gbps from $ 20 or how to share the server correctly? Options available with RAID1 and RAID10, up to 24 cores and up to 40GB DDR4 RAM. And despite the higher price, you will win, as you will get another motivation for faster growth. After all, when you don’t pay money, you don’t rush. At least you will help us grow with a new, reliable solution that will make prices more affordable for everyone.

Well, if you are a developer, and are not very willing to support our initiatives, but still save the environment - use our free offer, leaving a comment with the order number and recommending the possibility of free use by friends. Since we are really very sorry that the entry-level cloud VPS heats the air, while the developers, at times, do not have comfortable testing environments. Our cloud-based VPS is certainly not as convenient as the competitors droplets, but reinstalling from a wide list of operating systems is available to you automatically, it will look something like this:



And most importantly, you will get more resources - the channel, CPU resources, productive storage, almost for free.

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