Item: Akamai Cloud Computing
Rating: 10
Author: Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with Linode

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Niche Development utilizes Linode virtual servers to provide web and email services for the company. We started using the mail services a couple years ago, and migration of our web services from AWS has just begun as a cost-saving procedure.

Pros and Cons

Pros

Cost. Linode offers many of the same services as "other" cloud providers, but does so at a much reduced rate.
Linux. I have been a heavy Linux advocate since 1999, and Linode fits that profile as well.
Familiarized operation. Working with my Linode VMs feels more like working on a physical or VM server than I have found with "other" cloud providers, and the Linode web console provides the information I need to manage those devices without overwhelmingly cluttering screens with multitudes of options that don't apply to those needs.

Cons

I would like an option to add more memory (such as 1G) to an existing VM instead of increasing the entire VM to the next level. For example, I have a Linode 2GB system with 50G of storage. That VM has plenty of storage, but could use another 1G of RAM, however it really doesn't need to be bumped to the 4GB plan as the extra 30G of storage, and even some of extra 2G of RAM that comes with that plan would not be utilized. Allowing a "partial" increase of of those two options would be great if available.

Return on Investment

ROI is far better with Linode's options versus "other" cloud providers.
The VMs (well, as least mine), are Linux-based, which has proven to be more stable, easier to manage, more secure, have less overhead and more cost-effective to operate than Windows servers, so hands down that is a win-win option.
The VMs are quick to deploy, set up and configure for your needs without having several hoops that need to be jumped through, as is the case with some of the "other" could service providers.

Alternatives Considered

Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling, Amazon Route 53, Amazon S3 (Simple Storage Service) and Amazon CloudWatch

I chose Linode over Amazon mainly because it was a better fit for my business, and was cheaper, but also because I enjoy backing smaller Linux-driven companies over "big tech" companies, many of whom are already degrading our country with their corporate policies and pay-outs to politicians and organizations that are in fact detrimental to our country's freedoms, ethics, growth and overall stance in world power that our fathers/mothers and forefathers/mothers have fought and died for.

Support Rating

When I have had a question (rarely, but there has been a time or two), I received the answer I needed via Linode's IRC channel, or searches on the Internet via DuckDuckGo.

With other "big tech" cloud providers, even if you do reach someone, you usually wind up being assisted by someone that reads back from a script and actually *knows* very little. Most of their "technicians" are just people hired that can select from a flow chart to determine what the answer to the issue is, and as I have found working in the tech industry professionally since 1984, there are a lot of times when tech issues just don't follow the "flowchart" a Support Desk uses.

Likelihood to Recommend

I think Linode is very well suited for businesses that need to operate public-facing servers for services provided to both themselves and/or the public, but either can't afford to, or are unable to, stand up physical servers or a VM farm for virtual servers in a data center.

It's also great when you want to just spin up a dedicated VM for a particular development project, knowing it can be easily torn down when the project is over, or migrated to a production environment.

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