Saturday, October 29, 2011

Deploying to AWS doesn't make sense (not just yet)

I've been mulling the thought of deploying a webserver to Amazon's AWS service as of recently and I've been running the idea through my head multiple times and something just didn't sit right. I've been playing around with a webhosting service for the past year to see what it is like to work with a webhosting service and came to the conclusion that the lack of control is a killer data portability; it is easy to create a blog and write on it, but it is a real pain in the rear to back it up and be able to move it elsewhere should I want to. The other problem is the limited control of software installation I can do, meaning that I would be completely limited to whatever the service provider has installed. This is where Amazon's AWS service comes in.

Amazon's AWS is basically a server instance that you can use, it is very much like having your own computer to play with, install an operating system and then do whatever you want with. I've been doing calculations on price for such a service and the numbers don't look favorable for a single "Small PC" instance which runs for about $744/year. At that price, I could buy a stripped down computer for far less and turn that into a usable server for at least a few years. Transitioning to AWS only would make sense if I needed signifcant computing power beyone what I would provide from home. 

I'll be looking into buying a new computer to play with at home.

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