AWS CloudFormation vs. IBM Cloud Virtual Servers for VPC

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
AWS CloudFormation
Score 8.7 out of 10
N/A
AWS CloudFormation gives developers and systems administrators a way to create and manage a collection of related AWS resources, provisioning and updating them in a predictable fashion. Use AWS CloudFormation’s sample templates or create templates to describe the AWS resources, and any associated dependencies or runtime parameters, required to run an application. Users don’t need to figure out the order for provisioning AWS services or the subtleties of making those dependencies work.…
$0
IBM Cloud Virtual Servers for VPC
Score 8.1 out of 10
N/A
IBM Cloud Virtual Servers are customizable, public or private, cloud-based servers available from IBM. User can launch applications and software across blended, hybrid environments as the servers integrate with all cloud models.
$0.01
per hour
Pricing
AWS CloudFormationIBM Cloud Virtual Servers for VPC
Editions & Modules
Free Tier - 1,000 Handler Operations per Month per Account
$0.00
Handler Operation
$0.0009
per handler operation
IBM Cloud Virtual Servers (dedicated host)
starting at $0.22
per hour
IBM Cloud Virtual Servers (dedicated host)
starting at $149.00
per month
IBM Cloud Virtual Servers (multi-tenant)
starting at $0.038
per hour
IBM Cloud Virtual Servers (multi-tenant)
starting at $25.21
per month
IBM Cloud Virtual Servers (reserved)
starting at $0.02
per hour
IBM Cloud Virtual Servers (reserved)
starting at $13.27
per month
IBM Cloud Virtual Servers (transient)
starting at $0.01
per hour
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
AWS CloudFormationIBM Cloud Virtual Servers for VPC
Free Trial
YesYes
Free/Freemium Version
YesYes
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
YesYes
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeOptional
Additional DetailsThere is no additional charge for using AWS CloudFormation with resource providers in the following namespaces: AWS::*, Alexa::*, and Custom::*. In this case you pay for AWS resources (such as Amazon EC2 instances, Elastic Load Balancing load balancers, etc.) created using AWS CloudFormation as if you created them manually. You only pay for what you use, as you use it; there are no minimum fees and no required upfront commitments. When you use resource providers with AWS CloudFormation outside the namespaces mentioned above, you incur charges per handler operation. Handler operations are create, update, delete, read, or list actions on a resource.IBM Cloud virtual servers include 250 GB of outbound public bandwidth, unmetered inbound public bandwidth, and unmetered private and management network bandwidth.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
AWS CloudFormationIBM Cloud Virtual Servers for VPC
Considered Both Products
AWS CloudFormation

No answer on this topic

IBM Cloud Virtual Servers for VPC
Chose IBM Cloud Virtual Servers for VPC
We decided to make use of IBM Virtual Cloud Servers because we were offered IBM Credits and assistance for set up. Our experience was unfortunately negative and in particular, we feel that IBM Cloud Virtual Servers would benefit from having more personnel available to provide …
Chose IBM Cloud Virtual Servers for VPC
The selection of Virtual servers is easy and deployments and upgrades are easy to handle compared to the IBM cloud. Firstly UI is very easy and helps us to choose and customize fast without delay in critical times.AWS has a lot of varieties in instances we can choose based on …
Chose IBM Cloud Virtual Servers for VPC
We used to have our virtual machines at a contender, however, IBMs item range is substantially more practical which expanded our ROI. When I started using IBM for all my hosting solutions, I became a really big fan. They have well-built security and other features.
Chose IBM Cloud Virtual Servers for VPC
We used to have our virtual machines at a contender however IBM's item range is substantially more practical which expanded our ROI. Likewise having a cooperate with IBM opens up entryways that would've recently been closed.
Top Pros
Top Cons
Features
AWS CloudFormationIBM Cloud Virtual Servers for VPC
Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS)
Comparison of Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) features of Product A and Product B
AWS CloudFormation
-
Ratings
IBM Cloud Virtual Servers for VPC
8.3
88 Ratings
2% above category average
Service-level Agreement (SLA) uptime00 Ratings8.381 Ratings
Dynamic scaling00 Ratings8.276 Ratings
Elastic load balancing00 Ratings8.364 Ratings
Pre-configured templates00 Ratings7.873 Ratings
Monitoring tools00 Ratings8.384 Ratings
Pre-defined machine images00 Ratings8.378 Ratings
Operating system support00 Ratings8.284 Ratings
Security controls00 Ratings8.978 Ratings
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AWS CloudFormationIBM Cloud Virtual Servers for VPC
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Score 9.9 out of 10
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Score 8.9 out of 10
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Score 9.1 out of 10
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User Ratings
AWS CloudFormationIBM Cloud Virtual Servers for VPC
Likelihood to Recommend
7.6
(5 ratings)
8.1
(89 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
-
(0 ratings)
7.8
(3 ratings)
Availability
-
(0 ratings)
9.1
(1 ratings)
Performance
-
(0 ratings)
7.3
(1 ratings)
Support Rating
-
(0 ratings)
7.5
(5 ratings)
Ease of integration
-
(0 ratings)
9.1
(1 ratings)
Product Scalability
-
(0 ratings)
7.3
(1 ratings)
User Testimonials
AWS CloudFormationIBM Cloud Virtual Servers for VPC
Likelihood to Recommend
Amazon AWS
AWS CloudFormation is well suited for scenarios where all of your resources need to be provisioned on AWS but it is not suited for hybrid cloud deployments. It's very easy for someone new to learn. The level of customization offered as part of the template specifically for AWS services is great. There is also a UI tool where we can drag and drop the services we want and it generates an yaml file which is very easy to use. The visibility of stacks and its resources and one place where we can track and identify the issues in deployment is great.
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IBM
One scenario that immediately came to my mind was large-scale data processing, IBM Cloud Virtual Servers is well-suited for organizations that require high-performance computing capabilities, particularly when processing large amounts of data. It can also be useful for companies or organizations that wish to migrate their workplace to the cloud and it may suite companies that have strict compliance requirements since the servers have robust security features.
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Pros
Amazon AWS
  • SaaS
  • Paas
  • Iaas
  • On promises
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IBM
  • Scalability: IBM Cloud Virtual Servers enable businesses to simply and quickly scale up or down the resources they require in response to changing business demands. This enables firms to respond to traffic spikes, requests for new services, or changes in business size without the need for additional hardware purchases or maintenance.
  • Cost savings: By employing virtual servers in the cloud, enterprises can decrease capital expenditures for hardware and infrastructure while also lowering ongoing operational expenses by removing server maintenance and management costs. This can result in significant cost savings for enterprises, particularly those that need to raise or decrease their computer capacity fast and easily.
  • High availability: IBM Cloud Virtual Servers is built with high availability in mind, giving enterprises the certainty that their applications and data will be available and accessible even if hardware fails or other disruptions occur. This assists enterprises in maintaining business continuity and lowering the chance of downtime, which is crucial for firms that rely on 24/7 access to their systems. Furthermore, IBM's comprehensive network and security features aid in the prevention of data breaches and other security risks, assuring the availability and reliability of their applications and data.
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Cons
Amazon AWS
  • Error Description upon Failure Needs to be Improved.
  • Slow to create, delete or update.
  • Need to delete resources manually. It can ask before starting deletion whether to skip those resources or delete them.
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IBM
  • It would also be nice if there were more templates to choose from when creating a server. Right now there are only a few options, and we'd like to see more variety.
  • We'd like to see the ability to create server groups. This would make it easier to manage a large number of servers since we could do all of the updates and management tasks for them at once.
  • There doesn't seem to be a way to automatically install updates on all of the virtual servers. We have to go in and manually update each one, which can be time-consuming. It would be really nice if automatic updates can be done.
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Likelihood to Renew
Amazon AWS
No answers on this topic
IBM
It has a flexible and affordable pricing, easy to configure and manage. It is easy to spawn one or multiple instances and have them up and running in no time
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Reliability and Availability
Amazon AWS
No answers on this topic
IBM
Always available when you need an instance.
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Performance
Amazon AWS
No answers on this topic
IBM
Most of the instances work on hypervisors with good processors, but not all of them.
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Support Rating
Amazon AWS
No answers on this topic
IBM
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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Implementation Rating
Amazon AWS
No answers on this topic
IBM
We did not use IBM professional services to implement IBM Cloud Virtual Servers.
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Alternatives Considered
Amazon AWS
We didn't look into anything else as Cloudformation was "built-in" for AWS, it just kind of made sense to go with that. Terraform was something that we briefly looked into Terraform but decides to stick with Cloudformation because our task was relatively "simple". Apparently if it's a bit more complex, Terraform might be the way to go.
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IBM
IBM Cloud Virtual Servers offer more customization options than Amazon EC2, with the ability to select from a range of operating systems, storage types, and network configurations. IBM also provides a wide range of tools and services to help manage and optimize your virtual servers, including a web-based console, CLI, and API.

AWS EC2 is a more managed platform, with a focus on providing a simple and easy-to-use interface. Amazon provides a range of predefined instance types, each with different specs and pricing, to make it easy to find the right option for your needs. AWS also offers a number of management and monitoring tools, but these are often more basic than what is available from IBM.
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Scalability
Amazon AWS
No answers on this topic
IBM
It worked well for us in the beginning, it works well for us when we have more instances.
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Return on Investment
Amazon AWS
  • It has a positive ROI
  • Less time inverted in bugs
  • More stable source code
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IBM
  • 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.
Read full review
ScreenShots

AWS CloudFormation Screenshots

Screenshot of CloudFormation - How it works overviewScreenshot of CloudFormation - High level how it worksScreenshot of CloudFormation - Template exampleScreenshot of CloudFormation - Template inputs overview