Cloud Conversation Series : I

RackSpace vs Amazon Web Services

Insights and Views

PrefaceGet me on my bread and butter or freaking cloud . If you are a Cloud Architect like me then you will have encounter ask this question. Today, I want to share with you some research I have done for a prospect. Presenting a brief trade study analysis on Rackspace versus Amazon Web Services.

So in this trade study, I am going to cover the top three points that my clients care about most

Price Comparison,

Instance Comparison

Availability Zones, and

Auto-Scaling Features

I am going to assume that you know a little bit about Amazon Web Services (AWS). It saves me the trouble in trying to explain what EC2 means.

Instance ComparisonIn total, Amazon EC2 provides a total of 23 instance types that can be custom configured to meet user demand all of which are backed by:

Burstable performance

Multiple storage options

Enhanced networking for higher packet transmission per second

Clustered networking

Industry leading Intel processors featuring:

Intel AES-NI encryption instruction set,

Intel AVX to improve performance for applications like image and audio/video processing, scientific simulations, financial analytics, and 3D modeling and analysis

Intel Turbo Boost Technology designed to automatically run cores faster than the base operating frequency

In Total Rackspace offers 51 different instances. Consumers can choose from one of six operating systems – Linux, Windows, Windows + SQL Web, Windows + SQL Standard, Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Vyatta vRouter – which can then be further broken down into three service levels –Managed Infrastructure, Managed Operations: SysOps and Managed Operations: DevOpsAutomation.

Three categories:

• General Purpose, a.k.a. Performance Level 1, best used for “test and development, web servers, batch processing, network appliances, small databases, and most general-purpose computing workloads.”

• I/O Optimized, a.k.a. Performance Level 2, best used for “medium to large relational databases and NoSQL data stores.”

• OnMetal I/O Optimized, a.k.a. OnMetal, best used for “Large scale online transaction processing (OLTP), relational databases, and NoSQL data stores.

Cloud Instance Conclusion:

Both Amazon EC2 and RackSpace offer a wide variety of instances to

meet every consumers needs.

Price Comparison

Cloud Pricing Conclusion:Across the board, Amazon is cheaper. Due to their sheer size and backing, the Amazon EC2 Cloud is

a cheaper and more affordable Cloud hosting option than the RackSpace Cloud. This said, the

comparison isn’t straight across and can’t, in jest, be held in the same vein. Amazon EC2 Cloud is

cheaper yet cheaper doesn’t mean better or the more affordable in the long run.

Other Services ComparisonSurely due to the size of Amazon, they offer a lot. Some of Amazon products are:

Databases

Analytics

App Services

Mobile Services

Applications

AWS Marketplace

Big Data Resources

Web Development Resources

Gaming Development Resources

Digital Media Server Resources

The major consumer buy in for RackSpace over Amazon is RackSpace “fanatical support”.

Above all competitors in the industry, RackSpace has made their name by sticking to their creed of providing “fanatical support”. With avenues of communication ranging from phone support, to online ticket support, to email support, live chat support, community bases support and knowledgebase support, RackSpace holds true to being their for their consumers 24x7x365.

Amazon does provide support yet at the price they charge and for the level of support their supply, just like price, it isn’t an apples-to-apples comparison to RackSpace.

Additional Cloud Services Conclusion:• Amazon offers more additional Cloud services, more add-ons, than RackSpace. RackSpace, on the other hand, is

ways ahead of Amazon in terms of consumer support.

• When choosing between the two solutions, if you consider yourself a web hosting junkie who extracts joy out of

fixing Apache and MySQL, go with Amazon. If, on the other hand, you are a business or someone without

technical knowledge, RackSpace is your play.

Availability Comparison

Keep in Mind that high availability (HA), resiliency, business continuance (BC) along with disaster recovery (DR) are the sum of several pieces. This includes people, best practices, processes including change management, good design eliminating points of failure and isolating or containing faults, along with how the components or technology used (e.g. hardware, software, networks, services, tools). Good technology used in goods ways can be part of a highly resilient flexible and scalable data infrastructure. Good technology used in the wrong ways may not leverage the solutions to their full potential. Why 99.999% Available Amazon AWS Takes Down Netflix on Christmas Eve . Not sure why AWS become a lightning rod for when things go wrong?

Comparison Summary

Saying you get what you pay for would be too easy and perhaps not applicable.

There are good services free, or low-cost, just like good free content and other things, however vice versa, just because something costs more, does not make it better.

There are services that charge a premium however may have no better if not worse reliability, same with content for fee or perceived value that is no better than what you get free.

Choose for Conventional Infrastructure Managed Services in OPEX Model instead for better control for better control and availability.

Final VerdictThe truth of the matter is while Amazon might out perform the RackSpace Cloud in certain places and while RackSpace might out perform the Amazon EC2 Cloud platform in other places, no one will fault you for choosing either one of these providers as your Cloud hosting company of choice.

I still prefer to recommend private cloud model or conventional infrastructure managed services for MISSION CRITICAL APPLICATIONS.

Both Amazon and RackSpace are well-tested companies who understand the market, understand market demand, understand what price the market will pay for services and most importantly, understand performance and price mean nothing without reliability.

RackSpace and Amazon are similar in many circumstances yet both strive to outperform the market when it comes to service reliability.

The Bottom Line: Amazon EC2 Cloud or the RackSpace Cloud may be a smart choice when compared to the rest of the market. However establish and leverage known best practices while creating new ones. Look at the past for guidance to the future, however avoid clinging to, and bringing the baggage of the past to the future. Use new technologies, tools and techniques in new ways vs. using them in old ways. I herewith conclude with an advice to engage a trusted cloud broker or consultant when you plan to publish your enterprise cloud strategy.

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