Amazon Deep Learning AMIs vs IBM Cloud Virtual Servers

Likelihood to Recommend

Amazon AMIs has been very useful for the quick setup and implementation of deep learning for data analysis which is something I have used the service for in my own research. We commonly use the service to enable students to run intensive deep learning algorithms for their assessments. This service works well in this scenario as it allows students to quickly set up a suitable environment and get started with little hassle.If you are looking to run simple, surface level deep learning algorithms (kind of contradictory statement I know) then AMI is more complicated than most will need. When it comes to teaching the basics of Machine Learning, this kind of system is unnecessary and there are other alternatives which can be used. That being said this service is a must if you are looking to run complex deep learning via the cloud.

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Verified User

Employee in Information Technology

Education Management Company, 1001-5000 employees

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IBM Cloud Virtual Servers is well-suited for use when an organization requires the ability to create multiple infrastructure environments in a short period of time without having to manage hardware or software. On the other hand, it is not appropriate for use in scenarios that require a high level of security or compliance, as the infrastructure is hosted on shared hardware.

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Syed Shahrukh Hassan Rizvi

Technical Writing & Support Specialist

360factors, Inc.Information Technology & Services, 51-200 employees

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Pros

You can get several common packages including keras, pytorch and tensorflow setup within an environment ready to code on any AWS instance which saves time
Great for virtual applications that helps communicate between various pieces of software
Not need to worry about compatibility or any major aspects of setup e.g. GPU configuration

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Verified User

Employee in Information Technology

Education Management Company, 1001-5000 employees

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IBM VPC connect through any ssh and it's easy to handle it through any instance.
Public key and private key for access server is best part in security concerns.
Lightweight application to be easy to host on VPC rather than software as a service.

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Verified User

Director in Research & Development

Information Technology & Services Company, 1-10 employees

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Cons

Some aspects of the User Interface are quite confusing and activating packages can be a bit convoluted
It can be a bit confusing to switch between frameworks for novice users

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Verified User

Employee in Information Technology

Education Management Company, 1001-5000 employees

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Softlayer is designed primarily for advanced clients, and can be a little finicky like many other advanced services, such as highly-customizable options for nearly every part of a service. You build your servers by specs, just like a real server, rather than clicking a few buttons to get a basic cookie-cutter server.
Costs are much higher than one would expect, however, you do get what you pay for, and having high-quality equipment available at hourly rates is going to cost.
Support is surprisingly mediocre, and the primary cause of most complaints about softlayer. I personally have had no problems with support, but, remember that this is an "advanced" service, and even my eyes go cross-eyed looking at the config options of a server. I would imagine support is focused and trained for dealing with experienced Linux admins, and developers, and would not be of much help to anyone that accidentally ventured in, expecting an EC2 style experience.

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Craig Nash

Sr. Network Engineer

GodAmongGeeks.ComInformation Technology and Services, 1-10 employees

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Pricing Details

General

Free Trial

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Free/Freemium Version

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Premium Consulting/Integration Services

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Entry-level set up fee?

No

Starting Price

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Amazon Deep Learning AMIs Editions & Modules

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Additional Pricing Details

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General

Free Trial

Yes

Free/Freemium Version

Yes

Premium Consulting/Integration Services

Yes

Entry-level set up fee?

Optional

Starting Price

$0.01 per hour

IBM Cloud Virtual Servers Editions & Modules

Edition

IBM Cloud Virtual Servers (dedicated host)	starting at $0.22¹
IBM Cloud Virtual Servers (dedicated host)	starting at $149.00²
IBM Cloud Virtual Servers (multi-tenant)	starting at $0.038³
IBM Cloud Virtual Servers (multi-tenant)	starting at $25.21⁴
IBM Cloud Virtual Servers (reserved)	starting at $0.02⁵
IBM Cloud Virtual Servers (reserved)	starting at $13.27⁶
IBM Cloud Virtual Servers (transient)	starting at $0.01⁷

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Additional Pricing Details

IBM Cloud virtual servers include 250 GB of outbound public bandwidth, unmetered inbound public bandwidth, and unmetered private and management network bandwidth.

Likelihood to Renew

No score

No answers yet

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IBM Cloud Virtual Servers 8.2

Based on 1 answer

It's hard to imagine not renewing having spent so much time setting up our infrastructure to utilise the CVS

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Verified User

Strategist in Finance and Accounting

Financial Services Company, 10,001+ employees

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Support Rating

No score

No answers yet

No answers on this topic

IBM Cloud Virtual Servers 7.7

Based on 3 answers

It is adequate, but you need to be ready to argue your point - which is fair enough, I suppose, but being given the opposite of the benefit of the doubt every time does not necessarily result in an enjoyable user experience.

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Verified User

Engineer in Information Technology

Utilities Company, 11-50 employees

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Alternatives Considered

Both of these services provide similar functionality and from my experience both are top class services which cover most of your needs. I think ultimately it comes down to what you need each service for. For example Amazon DL AMIs allows for clustering by default meaning I am able to run several clustering algorithms without a problem whereas IBM Watson Studio doesn't provide this functionality. They both provide a wide range of default packages such as Amazon providing caffe-2 and IBM providing sci-kitlearn. My main point is that both are very good services which have very similar functionality, you just need to think about the costs, suitability of features and integration with other services you are using.

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Verified User

Employee in Information Technology

Education Management Company, 1001-5000 employees

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IBM virtual server is the most trusted brand to get good supports and high productivity. We used it for the most scalable servers to use and meet the needs. It provides scalability, security all in a single place to backup and use and store your data without any worry.

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Verified User

Employee in Information Technology

Computer Software Company, 11-50 employees

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Return on Investment

It has made our Data Science/ Machine Learning Courses easier to manage/ need less human input therefore allowing us to increase the cohort size for this degree
It has unified a lot of technologies reducing the load on our IT team

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Verified User

Employee in Information Technology

Education Management Company, 1001-5000 employees

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Supports businesses who want compute power on demand (instances are ready within minutes).
It can give you access to a 32-core CPU at $0.29 for short running or interruptible processes - enabling cost-efficient number crunching.
Given me a taste of the powers of remote compute power for compilation and development.

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Keldon Alleyne

Programmer

Avasopht DevelopmentComputer Games, 1-10 employees

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