Amazon EC2 vs Rackspace Cloud: Which Option is the Best?

Cloud hosting has become a powerful and affordable option for those who need access to server resources on a dynamic basis.

While relatively new, the technology itself is proven and already there are many well-established companies moving into the cloud hosting space.

Two of the biggest names are Amazon and Rackspace, and the Amazon EC2 and RackspaceCloud offerings both take the lead in this growing market.

Both offerings tout the ability to create new server instances within minutes, to scale up and down almost immediately as your requirements change, and the advantage of paying only for capacity used. And true enough, both companies do exceptionally well in that regard. Users of either offering have consistently gained advantage, and both are highly acclaimed.

The RackspaceCloud does offer an edge in a few areas though, especially in persistence of the virtual server. Because the Rackspace offering is tied to RAID10 disk storage, you do have additional protection against a drive failure in case of a failed host. In other words, if an unlikely server failure does occur in the Rackspace facility, your own Cloud Server will still exist.

Depending on your particular data center needs, you may wish to embark on a hybrid strategy of cloud and dedicated servers. Not everybody needs such a strategy, but it may be necessary for example in the case of a company with both a highly secure private, as well as public intranet. In such a case, Rackspace again does give you the option of dedicated servers as well.

While cloud hosting, and cloud computing in general, is typically very easy to implement and to operate on a day-to-day basis, support remains an important consideration, especially since the physical server is removed from your own premises. You rely on your provider to provide ongoing support. Amazon does offer a paid premium support package in addition to its basic tech support service, which gives you fast support. Rackspace takes a different approach with its “Fanatical Support” offering, which comes free with every cloud hosting account. Without the added layer of paid support, even with everything else being equal Rackspace would come in at a lower price point.

Finally, those who want to start small may also want to give Rackspace a top space on your short list, with Cloud Servers starting at just 256MB and going up to 16GB.

Links

• RackspaceCloud Official Website
• RackspaceCloud Review
• RackspaceCloud Coupon Codes – Up to $25 Off!
  
• Amazon EC2 Official Website