views:

87

answers:

3

I know that Amazon EC2 gives out a 'cloud' platform -- ie. A virtualized instance of a Linux or Windows box. However, I can't find other (large!) vendors doing this? For example, I tried Microsoft Azure, and it doesn't seem to issue out boxes, but just the development platforms or service platforms (ie database, exchange etc.)

Am I missing something?

+1  A: 

The definition of a cloud is somewhat, ehm, cloudy, but from your question, it seems you are merely looking for hosting of a "virtual private server" (VPS). As it really is neither possible not appropriate to give a complete listing of (large?) VPS hosting providers, I am going to suggest you do a search on the web for the query vps hosting.

Other definitions of "cloud" might assume some kind of "on demand scalability". Amazon EC2 allows you to spin up more servers in a matter of seconds, while other providers support on-the-fly upgrading of running instances. If this kind of flexibility is important for your application, you might want to update your question with a detailed cloud definition.

Jørn Schou-Rode
+3  A: 

Cloud computing is not just about virtual machines. It is about hardware-based services (involving computing, network and storage capacities), where:

  • Services are provided on-demand; customers can pay for them as they go, without the need to invest into a datacenter.
  • Hardware management is abstracted from the customers.
  • Infrastructure capacities are elastic and can easily scale up and down.

Obviously, consuming raw hardware capacities may be too hardcore for some consumers that merely want to have a scalable storage. So it is natural that cloud computing services already got some diversity around them:

  • Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), where customer gets raw hardware resources (i.e.: virtual machines with OS of choice). Examples:

    • Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud - part of AWS that offers scalable Xen-based virtual machines.
    • Rackspace - .NET or LAMP web sites, Storage and Linux-based virtual servers.
  • Platform as a Service (PaaS), where service provider builds a platform to simplify solving some technological tasks. This simplifies life for the customer, but also comes with a lock-down cost. Some providers:

    • Microsoft Windows Azure - .NET driven and Microsoft-owned cloud infrastructure, which is behind Amazon in some areas.
    • Amazon Web Services - collection of scalable infrastructure pieces for building your cloud application.
    • Google App Engine - Python-based cloud framework.
    • Amazon Elastic Map Reduce - Apache Hadoop hosted on Amazon cloud services (EC2 and S3)
  • Software as a Service (SaaS). At this level everything is way more simple for the customers to consume, since they are provided with actual services generating business value to them. Service providers handle all the technological complexity and provide the support as needed.

Rinat Abdullin
A: 

Check out Skytap.

www.Skytap.com

Nate Odell