Comparison: GoGrid Cloud versus Amazon EC2
Written by Michael Sheehan on Jun 17th, 2008 | Filed under: Cloud Computing, FAQs, Features, General, GoGrid, ServePath
7,484 views
7,484 views
Note: The matrix below will be updated shortly in a new post to reflect changes in both EC2 and GoGrid features. (11.11.08)
As GoGrid continues its record breaking sign-ups, we get asked repeatedly how we compare against Amazon’s EC2. While not exactly an apples to apples comparison, there are enough similarities to warrant a few matrices to illustrate the differences.
Feature Comparison Matrix
|
Feature |
GoGrid
|
Amazon EC2 |
|
Instant server deployment
|
YES
|
YES
|
|
Instant server network scaling
|
YES
|
YES
|
|
Linux
|
YES
|
YES
|
|
Static IP address
|
YES
|
YES
|
|
Windows Server 2003
|
YES
|
NO
|
|
Microsoft SQL Server
|
YES
|
NO
|
|
FREE 24/7 phone support
|
YES
|
NO
|
|
FREE persistent storage
|
YES
|
NO
|
|
FREE inbound data transfer
|
YES
|
NO
|
|
FREE hardware f5 load balancing
|
YES
|
NO
|
|
FREE managed DNS
|
YES
|
NO
|
|
FREE DoS protection
|
YES
|
NO
|
|
Service Level Agreement
|
YES
|
NO
|
|
Graphical User Interface (GUI)
|
YES
|
NO
|
|
Hardware VLAN segmentation
|
YES
|
NO
|
|
Multiple IP addresses per server
|
YES
|
NO
|
|
Standard server images
|
YES
|
NO
|
|
Volume discounts
|
YES
|
NO
|
|
Private IP addresses on separate VLAN
|
YES
|
NO
|
While not officially sanctioned by our Product Management team, I added this for good measure.
Deployment Time Comparison
|
Transfer |
GoGrid |
Amazon EC2 |
|
Linux Server
|
Less than 5 minutes
|
More than GoGrid****
|
|
Windows Server
|
Less than 5 minutes
|
Can’t deploy Windows
|
|
Hardware-based Load Balancer
|
Less than 1 minute
|
Not available
|
| Ease-of-Use |
|
|
**** A bit of humor after watching a long video showing how to deploy EC2 images.
If there is another GoGrid comparison that you would like to see, just leave a comment and we will do our best to post in the future.
I am curious how users are setting up firewalls to protect their servers in a grid computing scenario. Right now with our Servepath servers we have the hardware firewall add on that protects, but I don’t see any similar option for GoGrid and we are not comfortable with using only a product such as Windows Firewall to protect our servers. For now this is the primary item of concern holding us back from switching to the Grid product, which seems like a great idea and a definite trend for future deployments.
After reading this blog posting and some others on your site prompted me to do some research. Please note that I am a somewhat happy customer of gogrid so far.
I found this website http://www.enomalism.com. How does this fit into your market? Is this company doing the same thing or are they just making an open source version of gogrid?
@Michael,
Great question. A firewall hardware appliance (like the load balancer) is definitely something under consideration. There are other ways to increase security as well through the use of the load balancer and IP and port restrictions on the web servers (e.g., iptables).
Another option that I haven’t really explored is potentially setting up a low end web-server with a software-based firewall and then routing traffic through that. You could get something like Webmin and an iptables module and manage the routing that way with extreme granularity.
We are working on some other things that may make this easier in the future though. Thanks for your input.
@Reginald,
My understanding of enomalism is that it simply provides a front-end way to control EC2 instances using their API. It’s similar to Eucalyptus in that way.
They way they fit into the market is that we have build the GUI already and will shortly be offering out the API as well for further control of GoGrid instances.
Thanks for your comment.
-Michael
The windows 2003 instances are great, but is there a confirmed timeline for when windows 2008 server will be available?
@Adam,
I don’t have an exact date, however I do know that we are currently testing Windows 2008 Server images. Since there are many changes from Windows 2003, this adds to the level of complexity of the testing. Best bet is to subscribe to this blog RSS feed as well as review the GoGrid Wiki (http://wiki.gogrid.com) for more information.
-Michael
[...] Here is a head to head price comparison of GoGrid and Amazon EC2. Looking good for GoGrid… [...]
[...] Comparison: GoGrid Cloud versus Amazon EC2 | GoGrid Blog As GoGrid continues its record breaking sign-ups, we get asked repeatedly how we compare against Amazon’s EC2. While not exactly an apples to apples comparison, there are enough similarities to warrant a few matrices to illustrate the differences. (tags: ec2 cloudcomputing gogrid) [...]
[...] July 29, 2008 I found this nice comparison of GoGrid vs. Amazon EC2 on the GoGrid Blog: [...]
What kind of SLA’s gogrid provides?
@Brian,
The full GoGrid SLA can be viewed here.
Please let me know if you have any questions.
-Michael
[...] Comparison: GoGrid Cloud versus Amazon EC2 [...]
On the date 11.11.2008 you indicated you were going to update this feature comparison.
It is now 20.08.2009.