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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If you're already a customer of IBM, or using an IBM product through an ASP or reseller, or you need access to the hundreds of services IBM provides, it's a great place to build out your infrastructure.

If you're an established company slowly adding VMs, a smaller provider in the vast digital ocean of choices may be better.

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Scott Galvin

Co-founder

CenturyLinkFinancial Services, 1-10 employees

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Feature Rating Comparison

Amazon Deep Learning AMIs

IBM Cloud Virtual Servers

Service-level Agreement (SLA) uptime

Dynamic scaling

Elastic load balancing

Pre-configured templates

Monitoring tools

Pre-defined machine images

Operating system support

Security controls

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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The pricing options for services is awesome, offering bare-metal and other high-demand services at hourly rates.
Softlayer offers a huge assortment of high-powered services, such as Nvidia Tesla GPU computing, high-bandwidth connection options, and highly customizable bare-metal servers
All of Softlayers' plans and services are fully adaptable to to fit your needs, with a huge amount of options for both the services they offer and the management options available for those services.

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Craig Nash

Sr. Network Engineer

GodAmongGeeks.ComInformation Technology and Services, 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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They are aggressively deactivating services and data centers and forcing us to migrate relatively new servers to other data centers and may respond more quickly to tickets / cases, this is not a cloud provider but, amateurs in trouble, they do not deserve positive reviews !
cost is very high and I truly figure they ought to give various dialects for support function.
UI is quite complex they should update it with simple features.

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Rajesh Singh

CEO & MD

Gurjartech Pvt LtdInformation Technology & Services, 1-10 employees

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Likelihood to Renew

No score

No answers yet

No answers on this topic

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 7.5

Based on 2 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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I have had a dedicated server for 20 years. The last company, Softlayer, got bought out by IBM, and the transition has been a very good one. When I started using IBM for all my hosting solutions, I became a really big fan. Everything has been a user-friendly experience. The products have been really easy to work with.

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Jeffrey Lange

Owner / Creative Director / Developer / Digital Marketing

FanbuildInformation Technology & Services, 1-10 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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Freed up our team to focus on working on our own products and not having to worry about maintaining and patching servers.
On-demand procurement allowed our team to quickly spin up servers as needed and shut them down when work is done.

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Qing Miao

Program Manager

AppFusionsComputer Software, 1-10 employees

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Pricing Details

General

Free Trial

—

Free/Freemium Version

—

Premium Consulting/Integration Services

—

Entry-level set up fee?

No

Amazon Deep Learning AMIs Editions & Modules

—

Additional Pricing Details

—

General

Free Trial

Yes

Free/Freemium Version

Yes

Premium Consulting/Integration Services

Yes

Entry-level set up fee?

Optional

IBM Cloud Virtual Servers Editions & Modules

Edition

IBM Cloud Public Virtual Servers	starting at $0.038¹
IBM Cloud Dedicated Virtual Servers	starting at $0.22¹
IBM Cloud Public Virtual Servers	starting at $25.21²
IBM Cloud Dedicated Virtual Servers	starting at $149.00²
IBM Cloud Transient Virtual Servers	starting at $0.01³
IBM Cloud Reserved Virtual Servers	starting at $0.02³
IBM Cloud Reserved Virtual Servers	starting at $13.27⁴

per hour
per month
per hour
per month

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.

Rating Summary

Amazon Deep Learning AMIs

IBM Cloud Virtual Servers

Amazon Deep Learning AMIs

IBM Cloud Virtual Servers

Amazon Deep Learning AMIs

IBM Cloud Virtual Servers

Amazon Deep Learning AMIs vs IBM Cloud Virtual Servers