Cloud Hosting - anyone out there using it?
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- tecnicabjj
- Sr. Rocketeer
- Posts: 146
- Thanks: 0
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I know this can be a topic with so many variables, but wanted to know some info on others experience using cloud hosting like AWS (Amazon Web Services) or any other cloud solution.
I have been looking into BitNami , which seems like it has a great UI for open source apps, especially for Joomla. It also is supposed to integrate with AWS.
Possible Scenario - to make it easier for everyone to give input
Let's just say that as a web designer/developer, you would be hosting less than 25 websites that all have quite low traffic (i.e. local small business retail/service website). Would it be better to sign up for shared hosting or VPS with Host Gator or using something like BitNami/Amazon?....
Looks like BitNami and Amazon have both a free/trial version....
BitNami ( Pricing )
AWS ( Free Tier Usage )
Questions
Will AWS cost a lot more than shared hosting for the scenario above?
Will security be better than typical shared hosting (i.e. Malware/SQL injections)?
Will VPS cost a lot more than cloud hosting?
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- Doug Robertson
- Newbie
- Posts: 18
- Thanks: 0
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I have set up two cloud servers using AWS and Bitnami. Amazon web services I completely love. The costs are low as heck and you get HUGE amounts of instant power and flexibility. If your sites do any level of email marketing take a good look at Amazon SES. It cut our costs by 90% and works great.
A few warnings. You will need to get used to the way Amazon does things. Their terminology is certainly unique to them. They can take something as straightforward as a virtual computer and confuse the heck out of it by describing it as a snapshot loaded on a volume that is attached to an instance (a virtual computer). There is a bit of a learning curve involved. But the services Amazon provides are amazing and over all very cheap.
Bitnami on the other hand has been a miserable mess. Whoever created their Joomla AMI must never have actually used it. It is full of miserable permission errors and ownership problems. Right out of the box it required a ton of work just for me to be able to load extensions and get basic things working. They claim to follow the best practices guidelines, but my instances still aren't right.
If you have the skills just instantiate a basic Linux box and add Apache/PHP/mySQL/Joomla yourself. Regrettably I didn't have these skills when I started. After having to learn all of these things to fix my bitnami install that is the way I would go next time.
Good luck.
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- Doug Robertson
- Newbie
- Posts: 18
- Thanks: 0
- BTW, the bitnami Joomla install does not use fastCGI and that instantly causes numerous problems with the RocketTheme extensions and templates. I have had to work custom permissions all over the place just to make LESS, RokGallery and other extensions work. Personally I blame bitnami for these problem and not RocketTheme.
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- tecnicabjj
- Sr. Rocketeer
- Posts: 146
- Thanks: 0
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Doug,
Thank you so much for your detailed info. It's always nice to know what a fellow RT member has experienced. Yes, I read about the "instances" which took some time to figure out what the heck that meant. But I've been hearing some good things about AWS cloud hosting - so I figure it wouldn't hurt to ask who else had tried it.
I did read about BitNami and after looking over many tutorials/videos - it looks like there is a little confusing mess when it comes to migrating your site over. It really helped to hear your experience and am glad that I didn't have to learn the hard way.
Wow, it sounds like you have had great experience with lowered cost and performance. Bet it was worth the learning curve. I don't know if I have the skill to work in their instances but will look more into it and try to do it the way you suggested.
Thanks again!
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- Doug Robertson
- Newbie
- Posts: 18
- Thanks: 0
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Glad this was useful.
I don't think you will have a hard time with AWS once you learn then strange names they have for things. An instance is just a running computer, a volume is a hard drive and a snapshot is a backup. Overall it is easy to use once you get the hang of it.
Bitnami on the other hand is a stupid mess. The only reason I haven't done a scathing review of them on AWS is that I still need support from them almost every day. I would really like to have some other option that doesn't cost stupid money.
I would highly recommend setting up an Amazon account and playing with a free micro instance. There isn't any cost and you can learn a lot with just a little playing.
Good luck.
Doug
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