Akamai Cloud Computing vs. IBM Cloud Bare Metal Servers vs. UpCloud

Akamai Connected Cloud Linode would be a good service to host a content delivery network (CDN) because of its edge network but I'd prefer not to use Akamai Connected Cloud Linode for tasks that need GPU power such as Machine Learning or Artificial Intelligence (AI) because Akamai Connected Cloud Linode lacks deep GPU compute compared to AWS or Google Cloud or Microsoft Azure

Well suited - 1) To Install required Products/Software in a middleware technology 2) Customize the file system and size of the storage 3) Install required monitoring tools like Tivoli, Splunk, etc. Less appropriate - 1) Maybe for SAAS products that do not require all of the installations.

Incentivized

If you're looking for a cost-effective solution then this is a good choice, be sure to keep on top of your balance! The 100% uptime is also a nice addition, although not unique in a cloud hosting service.

Incentivized

• It's super easy-to-use - set up a complete virtual environment in a few minutes.
• Linode is the ONLY service I know that will let you DOWNSIZE a VM - super useful.
• The price is right - spin up any size server and add additional block storage if needed.
• Object memory is cheap and integrates very well with S3 CLIs and applications.
• I've been very happy with the knowledgeable and friendly customer service.
• The more recent additions of a firewall and Kubernetes is a welcome plus.
• The load balancer ("Load Balancer") service is easy to spin up and configure.

Incentivized

• Performance - the servers perform really well, even under stress. We have some long build processes running concurrently, and the server [can] serve other applications without any problems.
• Secure - for the most part, the servers are very secure and IBM provides many tools to help [make] sure the servers stay that way.
• Highly Available - while we have experienced various downtimes and outages with other IBM Cloud offerings, so far, we have not experienced any with [IBM Cloud] Bare Metal Servers.

Incentivized

• Pricing
• Ease of use - super easy to manage existing servers and deploy new ones
• Great customer service

Incentivized

• Some of the documentation requires some hand-holding to get started. It does explain how to do things, but sometimes finding the answer takes work.
• Some of the settings are not obvious, or in locations that are not completely clear without experience.

Incentivized

• [In my experience, the] Customer Service Agreement (CSA) has many gaps in terms of responsibility with Bare Metal Servers.
• [I believe] IBM should be deploying servers and firmware updating all components before providing them to customers to prevent component failure.
• [I feel] IBM needs lots of improvement with their legacy VPN to access IMPI management tools. The level of security of it is unparalleled when it works. Having access to KVM / IPMI is critical for any business, and when their VPN service is not working.
• [From my experiences,] IBM deployed faulty hardware, or failed to update firmware per Lenovo notices, only to pass off blame.
• [In my opinion,] IBM's General Counsel and Paralegal held our data/company hostage when components failed, [in my experience] to IBM "gross negligence" (in their words), only to release it if we were to limit damages to $1,000.

• The billing reports are quite hard to read, could be simplified
• A control panel function would be useful
• The re-billing process could be better, not so cut throat if you miss a payment!

Incentivized

I've been with them a long time. They provide me with the capabilities I need coupled with knowledgeable support that's not pay-for-extra. However, if I move to a non-Linux OS, the level of support by necessity will drop off. I can still ask questions about the infrastructure but I my ability to ask about OS features will decrease.

Incentivized

Due to cloud computing taking over the market, I have moved to cloud computing. It is so much easier upgrading or downsizing a virtual server on the cloud vs bare metal. I find it way more convenient on cloud computing. The provisioning takes way too long for bare metal servers.

Incentivized

Simple and clear, no BS interface. From a design perspective it's no Apple or Stripe, but it does what it needs without making me want to stick a fork in my eyes, like when being forced to use Azure, AWS or GCP.

Incentivized

There is very little planned downtime. Whenever planned downtime is necessary I'm always given lots of advanced notice and an explanation that I can pass along to my users that they'll understand. I really appreciate that Linode appreciates my commitment to reliable service to my users. It shows that they believe they've been successful when I'm successful.

Incentivized

Servers are well dimensioned and price performant. Of course one always wants more, so if they were to upgrade their hardware for the same price I'd consider moving more workloads. Networking - never had an issue. Hardware speeds - disks are fast and can grow to great size.

Incentivized

Support was excellent and fast. The documentation is extensive and helpful. I learned many things from their online documentation. I did not contact them by phone, but email took a day or less. Complex problems would probably need a service contract. I liked the friendly and polite tone of the support.

Incentivized

Great responsiveness and detailed know-how from the team. Self Explanatory and good resources on the Web to resolve issues. Good communication on issues via email. Good response times on issues which arise and where we have received support from the IBM support team. We believe that IBM is a great Partner to base our IT applications and we believe that a critical infrastructure like a cloud backend will be well served if we continue to base it on IBM.

Incentivized

We got kick started with an initial walkthrough along with some free credits. The initial walkthrough helped us to understand Linode's ecosystem and start our hands on with Linode. We tried out some apps from Marketplace initially with the free credits, which not only helped us understand Linode better, but also those apps. We had implemented many such apps to our customers with Linode

Incentivized

We're a small organization. The implementation of our Linode solution was trivial. Once I justified a cloud server to my bosses over a co-location -- the co-lo wasn't as fast as our linode server in load tests -- it was a matter of moving one Linux implementation to another. Trivial.

Incentivized

The implementation of this software took place as we planned. The performance time taken for full functionality was very reliable with positive results. The customer support team was the best team I have ever met in my career experience. They are always with timely responses when reached to offer any help.

Incentivized

We switched to Linode from Namecheap due to poor uptime, and never had any issues with stability ever again after switching. We also cut our costs in half by switching. We compared Linode to DigitalOcean and Vultr, with the primary factor that caused us to go with Linode initially being their documentation. After using Linode for 3 years, their amazing support is another reason why we wouldn't consider anyone else at this point.

Incentivized

The Best part of this IBM Cloud Bare Metal Servers is performance and a very highly usable part is Security stuff. everyone needs to secure their data and work with a smoothly running app. for this reason I select this server rather than another one. I will use it in feature [definitely].

Incentivized

We trialed UpCloud to see if it would be better than DigitalOcean but for our needs, it was not. On DigitalOcean once a droplet is created, almost no thought needs to go into maintenance, outages, or other reliability-based issues.

Incentivized

Although I use only a fraction of their product offerings, the total set makes scalability an easy goal to shoot for. As I said, I have a few customers that use the services my Linode provides...and I like it that way. However, should I need to scale up, I can...without incurring any more cost than I need to.

Incentivized

• With the partnership of Linode, Configr is today the best performance hosting solution in Brazil.
• With Linode, Configr can provide a PaaS solution without the cost of taking care of all the infrastructure issues such as IaaS.
• Linode allowed Configr to be one of the biggest hosting companies in Brazil.

Incentivized

• Future readiness--we have the ability to quickly respond and build custom demos for customers in a short timeframe.
• Savings on hardware--we have the ability to spin up large workloads to demonstrate to customers the performance of our tools and IBM Cloud.

Incentivized

• The low cost means you don't really need to worry about pricing
• To us as a business it was not as useful as DigitalOcean

Incentivized