This might be a little bit off topic, but I've always thought that it could make some sense to have a YC colocation. With enough companies, it could be more cost-effective than everyone getting their own slicehost. Of course, there would be a ton of other headaches involved like backups, outages, etc, but a lot of YC companies seem to be doing just fine administering their own boxes in a colo. I know it wouldn't be for everyone, but maybe a standard stack of software/configuations could be readily available for new YC companies. We all seem to have had the same frustrations with configuring webservers, mail servers (ouch!), tweaking database servers, etc. It could be yet another benefit of joining the YC mafia =)
I think an easier way to do this is for a forward-thinking hosting provider, colo, etc. in the bay area to offer discounted or free hosting to YC companies (free during the YC period, maybe not after); a few months of free hosting to have a shot at a successful site as customer would be more than worth it.
(alternatively, convertible debt)
Piggybacking on YC's selection process seems like a good business model in general.
Slicehost has been doing Xen hosting longer. Linode is older, but they were using User Mode Linux (not nearly as good as Xen) for a long time. Slicehost got the mindshare by getting to Xen hosting first.
Slicehost is local to all their data centers. Whether in St Louis or Dallas/Ft Worth, their employees actually work there. Linode's employees all work in South Jersey, 2 hours from their Newark data center and inaccessible to their other data centers. Kinda indicates that they have other people setting up a lot of their stuff.
Linode is often out of stock or having limited stock. This might just be that Slicehost doesn't tell us how the sausage is made and Linode does.
Linode tops out at 2880MB. Slicehost offers instances going up to 15.5GB. That's a major difference if you want to try scaling up easily and there is a huge difference between trying to get your site to handle traffic on a 3GB server and a 15GB server.
Backups are a nice touch.
The Rackspace name lends a "they're the big game in town" to their service.
They aren't that much more expensive. Linode charges a constant $0.0555. . . per MB of RAM. At the 2GB level, Slicehost is charging $0.634 per MB of RAM. That means that if you were to get 2GB servers from each, the Slicehost would cost you $130 and the Linode would cost you $114. It is cheaper, but it isn't so significantly cheaper.
Slicehost can more easily upgrade your plan. Linode has to switch your box should you want to move plans. Often Slicehost can move plans while keeping you on the same box.
--
Now, none of that may matter to you. It doesn't to me and that's why I'm a Linode customer. However, for many these are considerations. If you're running a business, having instances top out at 3GB is a concern. Would you pay a 13% premium for Slicehost just for the knowledge that you can upgrade beyond 3GB of RAM should the need arise? If I had a person project where downtime for migration would be embarrassing, I would.
Likewise, some might care that the Slicehost people actually work in the area rather than colo-ing boxes with places like The Planet.
I'm very happy with Linode, but I can see why many would choose Slicehost.
I was just thinking the same thing. 14 on Slicehost and only 1 on Linode seems like an odd ratio considering the similarities of the services provided and price point.
Justin.tv and Weebly run their own networks. We have BGP-speaking routers that announce our own IP address prefixes to the global internet routing table via multiple transit providers.
Not a YC company but I have sites on Slicehost and FDC Servers. Slicehost was nice for setting up my first Linux server - now that I've done it, I'll be using FDC as it's hard to beat FDC for the price/bandwidth.
If you can stay under 3 TB/month 1and1 also has some decent servers for the money.
Does Mosso cloud mix into Rackspace? I've been quite happy with my Mosso Xen VPS.
I pay like $26/mo. for my 512MB VPS. It's $0.03/hr which is $21.90/mo. but you pay $0.22/GB out, and $0.08/GB in. I don't use a whole lot of bandwidth though.
It's only been 4 months since they announced commercial licensing. Before that you'd have been a nut to build your business on it. Pretty much any announced YC company started development more than 4 months back.
[+] [-] edawerd|16 years ago|reply
[+] [-] rdl|16 years ago|reply
(alternatively, convertible debt)
Piggybacking on YC's selection process seems like a good business model in general.
[+] [-] carbon8|16 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mdasen|16 years ago|reply
Slicehost has been doing Xen hosting longer. Linode is older, but they were using User Mode Linux (not nearly as good as Xen) for a long time. Slicehost got the mindshare by getting to Xen hosting first.
Slicehost is local to all their data centers. Whether in St Louis or Dallas/Ft Worth, their employees actually work there. Linode's employees all work in South Jersey, 2 hours from their Newark data center and inaccessible to their other data centers. Kinda indicates that they have other people setting up a lot of their stuff.
Linode is often out of stock or having limited stock. This might just be that Slicehost doesn't tell us how the sausage is made and Linode does.
Linode tops out at 2880MB. Slicehost offers instances going up to 15.5GB. That's a major difference if you want to try scaling up easily and there is a huge difference between trying to get your site to handle traffic on a 3GB server and a 15GB server.
Backups are a nice touch.
The Rackspace name lends a "they're the big game in town" to their service.
They aren't that much more expensive. Linode charges a constant $0.0555. . . per MB of RAM. At the 2GB level, Slicehost is charging $0.634 per MB of RAM. That means that if you were to get 2GB servers from each, the Slicehost would cost you $130 and the Linode would cost you $114. It is cheaper, but it isn't so significantly cheaper.
Slicehost can more easily upgrade your plan. Linode has to switch your box should you want to move plans. Often Slicehost can move plans while keeping you on the same box.
--
Now, none of that may matter to you. It doesn't to me and that's why I'm a Linode customer. However, for many these are considerations. If you're running a business, having instances top out at 3GB is a concern. Would you pay a 13% premium for Slicehost just for the knowledge that you can upgrade beyond 3GB of RAM should the need arise? If I had a person project where downtime for migration would be embarrassing, I would.
Likewise, some might care that the Slicehost people actually work in the area rather than colo-ing boxes with places like The Planet.
I'm very happy with Linode, but I can see why many would choose Slicehost.
[+] [-] KB|16 years ago|reply
Maybe its because Slicehost offers backups?
[+] [-] axod|16 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jmtame|16 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mc|16 years ago|reply
I noticed the list mentions Justin.tv hosts itself. Aren't they built on Amazon EC2 and S3?
[+] [-] kvogt|16 years ago|reply
[+] [-] emmett|16 years ago|reply
[+] [-] drusenko|16 years ago|reply
[+] [-] grandalf|16 years ago|reply
[+] [-] pubbins|16 years ago|reply
If you can stay under 3 TB/month 1and1 also has some decent servers for the money.
[+] [-] mikeyur|16 years ago|reply
I pay like $26/mo. for my 512MB VPS. It's $0.03/hr which is $21.90/mo. but you pay $0.22/GB out, and $0.08/GB in. I don't use a whole lot of bandwidth though.
[+] [-] webwright|16 years ago|reply
[+] [-] brett|16 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ALee|16 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dannyr|16 years ago|reply
[+] [-] wheels|16 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dangrover|16 years ago|reply
[+] [-] tdavis|16 years ago|reply
I miss you, Softlayer :(
[+] [-] anuraggoel|16 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jpwagner|16 years ago|reply
*edit--damn no one likes sarcasm around here
[+] [-] quizbiz|16 years ago|reply