Linode rebranded as Akamai’s cloud computing services(linode.com)
linode.com
Linode rebranded as Akamai’s cloud computing services
https://www.linode.com/blog/linode/a-bold-new-approach-to-the-cloud/
360 comments
Because they don't want to sell it to anyone who has ever heard of Linode. They are going to sell through their existing corporate sales contacts, as a new cloud compute offering by your pals at Akamai.
Does it mean that people who use Linode for Linode should be preparing to move out?
This is what I've been worried about since the acquisition. I've been a loyal customer for over a decade and hosted jsonip.com there for 12 years.
Now I seriously need to look for alternative hosting if/when the corpo overlords decide to start changing the offered products.
Now I seriously need to look for alternative hosting if/when the corpo overlords decide to start changing the offered products.
I've been with DigitalOcean for a very long time, their prices seem comparable to Linode, I always saw them marketed more or less the same.
In fact, I don't even know why one would pick Linode over DigitalOcean or vice versa
In fact, I don't even know why one would pick Linode over DigitalOcean or vice versa
> In fact, I don't even know why one would pick Linode over DigitalOcean or vice versa
For a lot of people “momentum” is a factor: Linode has been around for significantly longer and has been fairly stable/reliable for the whole of that time even implementing a couple of complete tech stack changes¹ better than many other companies seem to manage. In the early days they were ahead of their time.
While Linode were at the head of the pack for a while, their product range, features, and UX, did stagnate at certain times, at those points DO and other companies looked more attractive for new customers.
As the market for such services has homogenised somewhat, with there being few genuinely unique-to-one-provider offerings, small differences in price/features at the scale you are buying, and differences in where data-centres are located & what their bandwidth peering is like from the PoV of your target users, are usually the deciding factors. All other things being equal, check if any of them has a special offer on!
--
[1] Their services were originally user-mode-linux based², then switched to Xen³, then to KVM.
[2] I used them during that period.
[3] at the time of that switch I'd just moved to UML on a dedicated server for my own stuff, and later moved to a mix of containers & KVM.
For a lot of people “momentum” is a factor: Linode has been around for significantly longer and has been fairly stable/reliable for the whole of that time even implementing a couple of complete tech stack changes¹ better than many other companies seem to manage. In the early days they were ahead of their time.
While Linode were at the head of the pack for a while, their product range, features, and UX, did stagnate at certain times, at those points DO and other companies looked more attractive for new customers.
As the market for such services has homogenised somewhat, with there being few genuinely unique-to-one-provider offerings, small differences in price/features at the scale you are buying, and differences in where data-centres are located & what their bandwidth peering is like from the PoV of your target users, are usually the deciding factors. All other things being equal, check if any of them has a special offer on!
--
[1] Their services were originally user-mode-linux based², then switched to Xen³, then to KVM.
[2] I used them during that period.
[3] at the time of that switch I'd just moved to UML on a dedicated server for my own stuff, and later moved to a mix of containers & KVM.
I used to use Linode, then they got hacked and leaked my CC details twice (IIRC) and at that point I switched to DigitalOcean. Guessing many are in a similar boat.
Exact same story. Linode was fine but after their breaches I headed to DO and haven't looked back. Heard good things about Vultr but no experience w/ them.
Is their IPv6 implementation is still broken? It was the reason I moved off immediately after banging my head for a few hours because they somehow managed to screw it up despite RFCs advising how to do such deployments.
Same with Vultr if anyone still looking for options. Their new AMD power line is really worth looking into.
Beware of Vultr. The product works fine but the customer service is horrible. I had three days of downtime and they got sick of me asking for updates, ignored me, and didn't tell me when the service came back up. I switched back to DO and I'm fine with that again.
The be fair I had something similar happen with DO before. If I want stellar support I don't go with a affordable mega coorperation.
I tried both, and stuck with DO. Linode UI was superclunky when you needed to dive into it, but DO was great. Any search for how to X immediately returned great documentation.
Is “DO documentation” in this instance referring to the knowledge base of (usually really poorly written) tutorials DO got people to write for them by offering them very paltry sums as some sort of SEO play?
Slicehost (acquired by rackspace) pioneered this type of in depth how to guides for webhosting on linux. In fact many of the setup docs on DO seem oddly familiar…
I use Linode as a provider for small Linux VMs.
Does Digital Ocean offer this service at prices competitive with (legacy) Linode? The site is a confusing mess of buzzwords and made-up terms, which is nothing like the straightforward presentation that was part of the attraction for Linode (and for Slicehost before them).
I find DO immediately offputting.
Does Digital Ocean offer this service at prices competitive with (legacy) Linode? The site is a confusing mess of buzzwords and made-up terms, which is nothing like the straightforward presentation that was part of the attraction for Linode (and for Slicehost before them).
I find DO immediately offputting.
You may enjoy Hetzner instead, then.
I used to use Linode ten years ago, but eventually switched to Digital Ocean.
I switched to using Hetzner instead of Digital Ocean a couple years ago.
I used to use Linode ten years ago, but eventually switched to Digital Ocean.
I switched to using Hetzner instead of Digital Ocean a couple years ago.
Huh. Good tip. Thanks!
Hetzner cloud anyone?
Digital Ocean has a bot problem that I don’t see from Linode.
Way too many bots and other automated stuff running on throwaway DO nodes.
Way too many bots and other automated stuff running on throwaway DO nodes.
Because DigitalOcean have dark patterns around their subscriptions - they charge for the capability to deploy, not for actual deployments. It's counter intuitive and, however I look at it, I can't get away from the notion that it is a really scummy way of doing business. Which is why I voted with my feet and choose to do business elsewhere.
There are some small differences. For example, Linode has a wider choice of distros.
I do business with Akamai on the DNS side and actually find them to be really supportive and flexible.
It sure looks like it. I thought that the moment they got bought.
Same thing happened with Slicehost. They got absorbed by the Rackspace borg, which ruined everything we found appealing at SH -- so we found Linode.
I guess now I'm looking for the new Linode/Slicehost style provider. Sucks.
Same thing happened with Slicehost. They got absorbed by the Rackspace borg, which ruined everything we found appealing at SH -- so we found Linode.
I guess now I'm looking for the new Linode/Slicehost style provider. Sucks.
I've been pretty happy with Vultr.
I'll third this recommendation as well. I find them slightly easier to use than DO, and they have free transit to Cloudflare and Backblaze B2.
Vultr is great. Simple interface, quick and helpful support, great reliability over the 4 years I've been with them so far.
Is anything wrong with digital ocean? This name change has me wanting to jump ship as well.
Evidently DO is doing layoffs and their support may be suffering for it. So there's that.
Anecdotally, people seem to have more "human" support experiences with Linode than with Digital Ocean.
Besides that, it looks like people like DO.
Besides that, it looks like people like DO.
That doesn't bother me as a customer. If the company is laying people off it's probably also getting more efficient and therefore cheaper.
Empirically, it doesn't really correlate
that money just goes somewhere else. I'd rather see it invested in technology/service than management, marketing etc
A client of mine has used Linode for several years, increasing from 2 low end VMs when I first started with them, to the current 8 machines (well technically it's 13 right now but the 5 extras are because of their network migration breaking stuff and us needing to setup new VMs)
Not completely because of, but definitely somewhat because of the buyout, my client has agreed they should diversify and we're going to adapt it from a fault-tolerant single location (i.e. right now there are no SPOFs for them except the DC itself going dark), to three independent locations, with less fault tolerance per DC, but greater overall resilience.
One location will probably stay with Linode, but the other two definitely won't be Linode (they'll almost certainly each be a different vendor).
The benefit for us is that adopting multiple (individually) lower-resilience locations means we can be less picky about the host for a given location, because we're not using as many "advanced" features at each location, due to the vastly reduced complexity at the individual DCs.
Vultr and Digital Ocean *seem* like the obvious "Linode type services but not Linode" vendors, but neither seem to have a fantastic reputation from what I've seen.
OVH and Hetzner seem like two alternatives that may be worth checking out more, but they both seem to have an almost-intentionally complex service offering list, and it's hard to tell if some fairly basic things are available with plain VPS services (e.g. private IP addresses).
Not completely because of, but definitely somewhat because of the buyout, my client has agreed they should diversify and we're going to adapt it from a fault-tolerant single location (i.e. right now there are no SPOFs for them except the DC itself going dark), to three independent locations, with less fault tolerance per DC, but greater overall resilience.
One location will probably stay with Linode, but the other two definitely won't be Linode (they'll almost certainly each be a different vendor).
The benefit for us is that adopting multiple (individually) lower-resilience locations means we can be less picky about the host for a given location, because we're not using as many "advanced" features at each location, due to the vastly reduced complexity at the individual DCs.
Vultr and Digital Ocean *seem* like the obvious "Linode type services but not Linode" vendors, but neither seem to have a fantastic reputation from what I've seen.
OVH and Hetzner seem like two alternatives that may be worth checking out more, but they both seem to have an almost-intentionally complex service offering list, and it's hard to tell if some fairly basic things are available with plain VPS services (e.g. private IP addresses).
The writing has been on the wall for a while. Linode was great and reliable for a time, but their pace of development of new features has slowed significantly. That's not a problem per se but as Akamai muscles in more and more, it's clear the "good ol' Linode" was dead. Not specific to this announcement today, but as of a few weeks ago I terminated my Linode account, which had been my primary and active hosting provider since Feb 2010.
May I ask where you migrated to?
The writing's been on the wall for a couple of years now and Akamai doesn't have a strong presence in smaller niches.
I moved most of my stuff over to DigitalOcean a while back. The few remaining instances are now an urgent todo.
I moved most of my stuff over to DigitalOcean a while back. The few remaining instances are now an urgent todo.
I certainly would
I am! Heading over to OVH.
Why acquire Linonde when you are going to throw away everything which makes Linode valuable? Wouldn't it be cheaper to just create a cloud computing offering from scratch?
In the long run, possibly.
In the medium run (first 2-5 years) it’s not cheaper.
In the short run? Buying Linode gave them a foothold in the market. Creating it from scratch, would have taken months (or even years) to be able to make the first offer, and years until they built a reputation that would attract customers.
In the medium run (first 2-5 years) it’s not cheaper.
In the short run? Buying Linode gave them a foothold in the market. Creating it from scratch, would have taken months (or even years) to be able to make the first offer, and years until they built a reputation that would attract customers.
> a reputation that would attract customers.
But the whole point is that they're throwing away any of Linode's existing reputation in favor of banking on the Akamai name.
But the whole point is that they're throwing away any of Linode's existing reputation in favor of banking on the Akamai name.
But they are starting with a customer base, some of which have been with Linode for over a decade. Way easier and faster to build reputation from that as a starting point. (And also already cash flow positive and profitable, ignoring the purchase=setup cost)
Exactly, we are happy client for more than 14 years. And don't plan to move if they keep what Linode was good at. I mean when it is setup, except extremely rare migrations, you forget about it.
> if they keep what Linode was good at.
Yeah, but that's the big if, isn't it? Once they enact changes which require action on your part (sunsetting services, changing prices, ...), you'll probably move, or at least seriously consider it.
Yeah, but that's the big if, isn't it? Once they enact changes which require action on your part (sunsetting services, changing prices, ...), you'll probably move, or at least seriously consider it.
I think that's a lot of the point here. They won't be starting with that customer base if most of that customer base leaves because of these changes (which I think a significant portion of them may).
I've been with Linode since 2004, and this is making me seriously consider other providers.
Yes, as I recall, when Rackspace ruined Slicehost, a lot of people moved to Linode. I am guessing the same thing is likely to happen to Linode now. I'm just not sure if there is as clear a choice for a new company as it seemed to be when a lot of people moved from Slicehost to Linode.
....and probably not caring that for a significant chunk of folks, swapping small firm for HUGE firm is absolutely a downgrade.
I think these acquisitions are partly about the customer base and infrastructure but I believe a big part is getting the staff - existing functional highly skilled.
My guess is their organic growth rate wasn't impressive and so this change, which is only changing the name, isn't throwing away the most valuable part of Linode. The staff, operations routines and their technology are the most valuable parts. Even though they may not be using brand recognition to pitch this to their corporate sales contracts, I have a feeling its going to get mentioned as a counter to any concerns about new or immature offerings.
* already existing clients
* already existing SOPs and MOPs. Way easier to integrate or copy something that works than building it from scratch
* already existing systems -- ordering gear is still weeks or months out for us, plus no need to engineer or setup a new system as above, way easier to integrate or copy than starting from zero (in a business sense, anyway)
* lingering brand name recognition
* already existing SOPs and MOPs. Way easier to integrate or copy something that works than building it from scratch
* already existing systems -- ordering gear is still weeks or months out for us, plus no need to engineer or setup a new system as above, way easier to integrate or copy than starting from zero (in a business sense, anyway)
* lingering brand name recognition
This is the correct answer
“Going forward, Akamai’s rent-a-server cloud services will be called Linode” would have been a better solution, yeah. So the way you say “Amazon EC2” or “Amazon AWS”, you’d say “Akamai Linode”. The only downside is that inevitably people would shorten that to “Linode” instead of “Akamai”, which hurts brand recognition. And I guess that downside is significant enough to cause them to go with this bland “Akamai’s cloud services” moniker. That’s what commenters here are reacting to more than anything, I think: it’s very “bland corporation”-y to care that much about brand recognition and that little about other things.
Yeah except I don't want 'cloud services' I want a VPS, people who want a VPS are never going to look at Akamai branded that way.
Point is that akamai does not want people as clients. Akamai wants big corporations as clients.
Then why by Linode, who's entire business model is small business and hobbiests?
Because big corporations buy the exact same things, you just market to them differently. Throw in various kinds of support contracts and "enterprise" whatever and you make much better margins off of the corporate contract even if what you are selling is pretty much identical.
The point is that Akamai is probably correct that all Linode really needs to change to be seen as viable by large corporations is the marketing. Its incredibly dumb that the world works like that even at the scale of large corporations that you would think would care less about being marketed to, but my experience has been the opposite / being tickled by marketing is even more important for big corporations.
It should also be noted that the people who choose infrastructure vendors are rarely the actual sysadmins in charge of the infrastructure. These kinds of decisions are standardized across large organizations (sysadmins would never be able to agree on something like that let's be honest) and the choices tend to be made by people who haven't set up a new server in a decade, (if they've ever done so then they are more technical than most in charge of IT purchasing).
The point is that Akamai is probably correct that all Linode really needs to change to be seen as viable by large corporations is the marketing. Its incredibly dumb that the world works like that even at the scale of large corporations that you would think would care less about being marketed to, but my experience has been the opposite / being tickled by marketing is even more important for big corporations.
It should also be noted that the people who choose infrastructure vendors are rarely the actual sysadmins in charge of the infrastructure. These kinds of decisions are standardized across large organizations (sysadmins would never be able to agree on something like that let's be honest) and the choices tend to be made by people who haven't set up a new server in a decade, (if they've ever done so then they are more technical than most in charge of IT purchasing).
And people who "just" want a VPS are probably not Akamai's target market, so I think they're fine with the tradeoff.
Alienating existing customers is a terrible strategy
Existing customers of what? Akamai didn't buy a business (or if they did, they don't care that they did.) Akamai already has a business, one with (very profitable) customers. Rather, in buying Linode, Akamai bought another supply chain to use to feed their existing business-model with.
Think like: a sporting goods company buying a tire company, not to make tires, but because they want to sell their existing customers rubber balls to go with their knee pads and stickball sticks; and the tire company happens to have a good rubber-goods supply chain that can be repurposed to do that.
Akamai doesn't want to get into the VPS business. They want to repurpose Linode's systems to extend their "cloud-services integrated solution provider" solution portfolio. Remember "IBM SoftLayer"? Akamai wants to be IBM, and so they need a SoftLayer of their own.
Think like: a sporting goods company buying a tire company, not to make tires, but because they want to sell their existing customers rubber balls to go with their knee pads and stickball sticks; and the tire company happens to have a good rubber-goods supply chain that can be repurposed to do that.
Akamai doesn't want to get into the VPS business. They want to repurpose Linode's systems to extend their "cloud-services integrated solution provider" solution portfolio. Remember "IBM SoftLayer"? Akamai wants to be IBM, and so they need a SoftLayer of their own.
It's been working for them for 25 years so far.
Akamai doesn't want you as a customer if you're not spending millions a year. It's not worth their time.
Akamai doesn't want you as a customer if you're not spending millions a year. It's not worth their time.
So, all they care about is the maximum cash flow,not the number of users or even clients.
It should take few brain cells to understand business is driven by return on investment and not "most burgers served"
It should take few brain cells to understand business is driven by return on investment and not "most burgers served"
Haha, you should see the names Red Hat comes up with.
They offer a managed Apache Kafka. Which is called...
...Red Hat OpenShift Streams for Apache Kafka...
Or RHOSAK for short. So terrible in all ways.
They offer a managed Apache Kafka. Which is called...
...Red Hat OpenShift Streams for Apache Kafka...
Or RHOSAK for short. So terrible in all ways.
> They were running sponsorships using the Linode name on various media sites throughout last year, and I think even this year.
As recently as 2 days ago (the day before this was announced): https://youtu.be/b-WFetQjifc?t=51s
As recently as 2 days ago (the day before this was announced): https://youtu.be/b-WFetQjifc?t=51s
Not unlikely the employees booking these ads weren't even aware of the rebranding at that time. Or weren't allowed to tell third parties and so pretended nothing would change.
There is always going to be a day they do it, and a next time when they don't. When it coincides with a press release, makes all the more sense.
> but why not just call it something "Linode by Akamai" or "Akamai Linode"?
Because they know they're up against the AWS, GCP and Azure's of this world....
So it's probably a touch of the "nobody got fired for buying IBM", i.e. they consider "Akamai" to have more clout on a proposal sheet than "Linode".
Of course nobody sensible reads anything into a brand name, but if you're trying to impress the customer's C-suite ....
Because they know they're up against the AWS, GCP and Azure's of this world....
So it's probably a touch of the "nobody got fired for buying IBM", i.e. they consider "Akamai" to have more clout on a proposal sheet than "Linode".
Of course nobody sensible reads anything into a brand name, but if you're trying to impress the customer's C-suite ....
Amazon, Google, and Microsoft are household names
Akamai is not. I bet i you asked 10 random people what Akamai was they would never guess it, probably think it was new drug pfizer came out with or something
Akamai is not. I bet i you asked 10 random people what Akamai was they would never guess it, probably think it was new drug pfizer came out with or something
I never saw any clout attached to Akamai of all things, it's just "that other big CDN"
Isn't it actually the biggest?
Cloudflare is popular because they have that crazy free tier, but Akamai has the biggest CDN network.
Cloudflare revenues surpassed Akamai in 2022.
What a strange thing to say.
Cloudflare:
Revenue: Total revenue of $975.2 million representing an increase of 49% year-over-year.
GAAP net loss was $193.4 million compared to $260.3 million for fiscal 2021. GAAP net loss per basic and diluted share was $0.59, compared to $0.83 for fiscal 2021.
Akamai:
Revenue of $3.617 billion, up 4% year-over-year and up 8% when adjusted for foreign exchange. GAAP EPS of $3.26, down 17% year-over-year
Cloudflare:
Revenue: Total revenue of $975.2 million representing an increase of 49% year-over-year.
GAAP net loss was $193.4 million compared to $260.3 million for fiscal 2021. GAAP net loss per basic and diluted share was $0.59, compared to $0.83 for fiscal 2021.
Akamai:
Revenue of $3.617 billion, up 4% year-over-year and up 8% when adjusted for foreign exchange. GAAP EPS of $3.26, down 17% year-over-year
Totally right; didn't realize I was only looking at Q4 results. Thanks for the correction.
I'm surprised that many people would think the Akamai name has that much cache(t).
Hell even if they're determined to ditch the Linode brand, why make it "Akamai Connected Cloud", surely just "Akamai Cloud" is cleaner?
The larger the company, the worse they are at naming things...
Large company a name has a go through several committees in different depts, then to legal, then to some exec committee, and through all of that creative dies, slowly and painfully
Large company a name has a go through several committees in different depts, then to legal, then to some exec committee, and through all of that creative dies, slowly and painfully
I'm sure they spent a lot of time thinking about this, but why not just call it something "Linode by Akamai" or "Akamai Linode"? Neither "Akamai’s cloud computing services" or "Akamai Connected Cloud" sound like viable names. Is the goal just to get people to say "I use Akamai"?
Maybe the same person works in the B2B space. There was the B2B platform Insite that was bought out by Episerver a few years ago (who bought Optimizely and then took on the name) and rebranded to Optimizely B2B Commerce Cloud by Insite, where they quickly lost "by Insite". Then in the last few months they've decided to rebrand the product again to Optimizely Configured Commerce to separate it from their other eCommerce platform which they are calling Optimizely Customized Commerce.
Maybe the same person works in the B2B space. There was the B2B platform Insite that was bought out by Episerver a few years ago (who bought Optimizely and then took on the name) and rebranded to Optimizely B2B Commerce Cloud by Insite, where they quickly lost "by Insite". Then in the last few months they've decided to rebrand the product again to Optimizely Configured Commerce to separate it from their other eCommerce platform which they are calling Optimizely Customized Commerce.
It's less about brand awareness and more about telling customers upfront what it does. If I'm an Akamai customer that's never heard of Linode, maybe I ignore "Akamai Linode" because I've no clue what it does. If I hear "Cloud Computing Services", I know exactly what that offering is likely to entail from the name alone - Compute as a service.
The downside with this approach is that you lose any brand awareness of Linode. Perhaps that's not a terrible thing if their market share was minimal. You could have gone with "Akamai Linode Cloud Computing Services" or "Linode Cloud Computing Services by Akamai". But Linode seems a bit redundant in that name to my eyes.
The downside with this approach is that you lose any brand awareness of Linode. Perhaps that's not a terrible thing if their market share was minimal. You could have gone with "Akamai Linode Cloud Computing Services" or "Linode Cloud Computing Services by Akamai". But Linode seems a bit redundant in that name to my eyes.
It's now called "Akamai Connected Cloud". I don't know what is "Connected Cloud". I'll guess that it's something like CRM for businesses or IoT BaaS.
It could have been AkaLino, but chance wasted, sigh....
The cloud is just someone else's computer. Connected cloud is just another marketing term.
Disconnected Cloud is nonsense, so I suspect that "connected" covers besides cloud.
I don't know if it is just me, but I think that names of the form "X by Y" come across as particularly soulless and makes it look like X was just gobbled up by private equity and turned into a small department.
I was surprised because less than a week ago I’ve seen a youtube video where “linode” was the sponsor.
Wasted money I guess?
Wasted money I guess?
>Neither "Akamai’s cloud computing services" or "Akamai Connected Cloud" sound like viable names.
Haven't we gotten pretty used to Amazon Web Services?
Haven't we gotten pretty used to Amazon Web Services?
Not in the least.
What we've gotten used to is "AWS". However "ACC" sounds more like a condition to avoid, rather than a service to use.
What we've gotten used to is "AWS". However "ACC" sounds more like a condition to avoid, rather than a service to use.
I think that only needs some time to get used to. ACC is less awkward to pronounce than AWS at least.
We hate AWS
> Is the goal just to get people to say "I use Akamai"?
Precisely.
Precisely.
Sad day for Linode. Great standalone niche hosting platform. I get that these things happen. I was part of a Google acquisition that eventually got shutdown/rebranded. From an acquirer standpoint it makes sense. For existing users they probably now feel deflated as the whole reason they went to Linode was to avoid incumbents.
> the whole reason [existing users] went to Linode was to avoid incumbents.
Sounds like you just identified a tranche of customers Akamai doesn’t care about. As everyone else in the comments is pointing out Akamai doesn’t want your $1000/mo. It’s a waste of their time. They want customers who are eager to talk private pricing plans and $1M commits. And I expect the linked infra/team will now be providing services that those $MM customers want.
Sounds like you just identified a tranche of customers Akamai doesn’t care about. As everyone else in the comments is pointing out Akamai doesn’t want your $1000/mo. It’s a waste of their time. They want customers who are eager to talk private pricing plans and $1M commits. And I expect the linked infra/team will now be providing services that those $MM customers want.
That is the reverse of my experience with Akamai. Doing business with them in the thousands per month and they're very good.
Huh. Ok, I admit I’m a bit surprised by the counter example but fair enough. My experience was more competing with them for the big dollar “enterprise” accounts I described.
I used them for years in the thousands of dollars per month range. They were perfectly happy with that arrangement.
I was using a standalone niche host in the Uk called TSOHost who seemed quite good.
They recently announced they were shutting down their cloud hosting and gave just 45 days notice to move sites.
Funny part was that the way they gave their customers notice was flawed and most customers didn’t receive any email from them.
I wish a sense of deflation was the only issue I’d had!
They recently announced they were shutting down their cloud hosting and gave just 45 days notice to move sites.
Funny part was that the way they gave their customers notice was flawed and most customers didn’t receive any email from them.
I wish a sense of deflation was the only issue I’d had!
If i need a UK host i always jump to Mystic-beasts. They are great, i use them even for Colo.
https://www.mythic-beasts.com/servers/virtual
https://www.mythic-beasts.com/servers/virtual
I second this advice. While they are not the cheapest, they definitely know their stuff and provide excellent support.
Oh wow, it was my first ever paid host back a few years ago. How come they've shut that down, what's their new business model now?
They were acquired by GoDaddy, but seem to be desperate to get rid of all existing customers rather than migrate them to GoDaddy's hosting? It's odd
Yea that's pretty painful. I recently had to shutdown a service for my startup but I left the infrastructure running. People will gradually transition out and the traffic will go to zero. Not everyone can afford that luxury. I just made it explicitly clear there's no ongoing maintenance or support.
I once heard a guy say the best way to get people off your platform was to just keep raising the price. Make a fortune off the few that stick around with fewer customers to keep happy.
I wish that was the case. It never formulated like that. If you raise prices your support burden also goes up. Your need to innovate increases. The gap between profitability and the funding needed to get there is wide. Hence most startups die.
He’s saying, when you’re ready to shut your business down, keep jacking up the prices, and eventually your customers will leave. In that scenario, you don’t need to innovate or provide good support. The whole point is soft-kicking your customers to the curb while making some money.
Ethical? Probably not.
Ethical? Probably not.
The Linode brand is so well known by developers. Why in the world would Akamai risk the brand any further than they already have like this?
Because the Akami brand is known to executives, and those are the people buying the product?
Linode is a good service among a lot of equally good competitors (digitalOcean, ec2/lightsail, ovh, hetzner, vulter) in the space, but it's not as much a house name as Heroku or Github - it's not a trailbrazer, the cheapest, the most advanced or the first of it's kind. It's a good solid choice among other solid choices.
On the other hand Akami is, in many circles, known as the best (as a CDN at least - it is regarded by many as the most expansive, most stable and most feature rich), it is recognized by many as first (as a cdn) and is very much a house name.
Linode is a good service among a lot of equally good competitors (digitalOcean, ec2/lightsail, ovh, hetzner, vulter) in the space, but it's not as much a house name as Heroku or Github - it's not a trailbrazer, the cheapest, the most advanced or the first of it's kind. It's a good solid choice among other solid choices.
On the other hand Akami is, in many circles, known as the best (as a CDN at least - it is regarded by many as the most expansive, most stable and most feature rich), it is recognized by many as first (as a cdn) and is very much a house name.
Is it really well known? I've only ever heard of Linode because they sponsored some Youtube videos. I've never heard it mentioned in a professional setting as a developer.
On the contrary, Akamai is incredibly well known.
On the contrary, Akamai is incredibly well known.
I can’t tell you why you haven’t heard of Linode much, but yes, the Linode brand absolutely is well known.
When I think Linode, I think developer, small consultancy, etc. When I think Akamai, I think enterprise. Completely different brands.
It just seems like such a bizarre business decision to me for Akamai to throw a strong brand like that away just because they want to slap their name on the product instead.
All in all, I’m pretty sure this will turn out to have been a mistake.
When I think Linode, I think developer, small consultancy, etc. When I think Akamai, I think enterprise. Completely different brands.
It just seems like such a bizarre business decision to me for Akamai to throw a strong brand like that away just because they want to slap their name on the product instead.
All in all, I’m pretty sure this will turn out to have been a mistake.
Linode was maybe well known 5-10 years ago but I haven’t heard that name spoken in a long time
Linode hasn’t put themselves out there like other companies. For example, Digital Ocean has all those tutorials that show up in results. Vercel is linked to a hit framework (Next.js). Heroku was a darling linked to Ruby’s community and rode a wave of popularity.
Linode just has… existed for people specifically looking for virtual machines. That’s not a lot of people, relatively
Linode hasn’t put themselves out there like other companies. For example, Digital Ocean has all those tutorials that show up in results. Vercel is linked to a hit framework (Next.js). Heroku was a darling linked to Ruby’s community and rode a wave of popularity.
Linode just has… existed for people specifically looking for virtual machines. That’s not a lot of people, relatively
> Linode just has… existed for people specifically looking for virtual machines.
I feel they have been improving little by little throughout the years. I don't remember the exact times when each change happened, but I remember when they introduced hourly pricing, also their $5/month VPS, more variety in the VPSes they offer (GPU-specialized options, high-mem specialized options, etc.), the update of their web interface, etc. I imagine there probably must've also been improvements in their APIs for launching servers, etc. since hourly pricing must've made that useful for automated scaling.
I feel they have been improving little by little throughout the years. I don't remember the exact times when each change happened, but I remember when they introduced hourly pricing, also their $5/month VPS, more variety in the VPSes they offer (GPU-specialized options, high-mem specialized options, etc.), the update of their web interface, etc. I imagine there probably must've also been improvements in their APIs for launching servers, etc. since hourly pricing must've made that useful for automated scaling.
It may be different for other sectors but it seemed like they sponsored every episode of Changelog podcast for quite some time. At the very least they must have sponsored every episode I listened to.
Yeah once DigitalOcean launched it made Linode feel more folksy, to me at least. I swapped basically immediately and have been a customer since.
> When I think Linode, I think developer, small consultancy, etc. When I think Akamai, I think enterprise.
Yes, they're clearly trying to sell cloud services into their enterprise customers.
Because small developers/consultancies have small pockets, and enterprises have large ones.
It makes perfect sense as business strategy.
But it requires understanding that you don't matter to them (you are not the main character of Akamai's story/strategy).
Although it does mean I'll probably need to consider moving clouds myself finally after a decade, because the writing has to pretty much be on the wall at this point that they're not going to want me as a customer...
Yes, they're clearly trying to sell cloud services into their enterprise customers.
Because small developers/consultancies have small pockets, and enterprises have large ones.
It makes perfect sense as business strategy.
But it requires understanding that you don't matter to them (you are not the main character of Akamai's story/strategy).
Although it does mean I'll probably need to consider moving clouds myself finally after a decade, because the writing has to pretty much be on the wall at this point that they're not going to want me as a customer...
Right but from big business customer perspective it is another cloud with way less available services than other clouds.
I would expect to see them adding a lot more services in order to compete. Since they're relying on cross selling the quality will likely be lower but the overall package will make the numbers look happy, even if the developers using it aren't.
> Because small developers/consultancies have small pockets, and enterprises have large ones.
Enterprises love long term contracts. Cloud is all about highly-dynamic PAYG. Who does not love long term bulk contracts at [roughly] the price of dynamic PAYG?
Enterprises love long term contracts. Cloud is all about highly-dynamic PAYG. Who does not love long term bulk contracts at [roughly] the price of dynamic PAYG?
It doesn't make any sense from this vantage point. Akamai thinks they can sell me Linode at enterprise prices? LOL, that's not happening.
No, Akamai wants to sell enterprise users at enterprise prices. They would prefer you stop using them if it's anything less.
If anyone has tried to use Akamai for anything without an impressive budget behind them I imagine they can confirm this theory.
If anyone has tried to use Akamai for anything without an impressive budget behind them I imagine they can confirm this theory.
CDN is just a fancy name for web hosting and you can use Akamai through Azure CDN anytime you want. I worked on the Edgecast/Verizon CDN, it's just DNS and web servers all the way down but with more expensive buzzwords.
My guess is equity holders in Linode fully expect Akamai to destroy the brand, and that’s fine because they’re cashing out today.
They're not the only ones. I consider myself up to date, and I had no idea Linode was in the VPS business. If I had to guess their mission, it sounds like Tailscale. [1]
I've used Digital Ocean and all the big cloud providers. Vercel, Netlify, Heroku.
Haven't touched Akamai, but I certainly know of it.
[1] https://pixelastic.github.io/pokemonorbigdata/
I've used Digital Ocean and all the big cloud providers. Vercel, Netlify, Heroku.
Haven't touched Akamai, but I certainly know of it.
[1] https://pixelastic.github.io/pokemonorbigdata/
You are probably too young to remember the php Cpanel hosts then.
Linode was one of the big names in being cheap and having an actual vps where you could do whatever. Short of actually buying a rack and the accompanying hardware/networking software (not renting and having your electric/network subsidized) having a vps is the cheapest slickest option to do whatever, part of why I have never bothered with any of the Iaas options. At least AWS blows hard-core in comparison, a lot of the alternatives focus on optimizing some use case, not doing whatever the hell you want.
I'm not sure how you would even compare tailscale, that's focused more on connecting all your boxes e.g. on linode...
Linode was one of the big names in being cheap and having an actual vps where you could do whatever. Short of actually buying a rack and the accompanying hardware/networking software (not renting and having your electric/network subsidized) having a vps is the cheapest slickest option to do whatever, part of why I have never bothered with any of the Iaas options. At least AWS blows hard-core in comparison, a lot of the alternatives focus on optimizing some use case, not doing whatever the hell you want.
I'm not sure how you would even compare tailscale, that's focused more on connecting all your boxes e.g. on linode...
Linode predaates Vercel, Netlify, & Heroku by several years.
Heroku's original value prop was essentially "You don't have to set up a Linode for your rails app anymore, now you can just $git push heroku".
Heroku's original value prop was essentially "You don't have to set up a Linode for your rails app anymore, now you can just $git push heroku".
Linode has been around forever and were once one of the few games in town. They were into cloud computing years even AWS was. A lot of, er, elder statesman developers remember them from way back then. So if you’ve gotten into the game less than 15 years ago, it makes sense that you may not have heard of them.
I was running websites for clients on Linode like 10 years ago. I have to check, but I’m almost certain DigitalOcean didn’t even exist back then. Linode has been in the game for a very long time.
Edit: I just checked. DigitalOcean launched their beta product in 2012. I think it took another couple years before developers started to really take them seriously.
Edit: I just checked. DigitalOcean launched their beta product in 2012. I think it took another couple years before developers started to really take them seriously.
Linode is better comparable to Vultr, UpCloud and DO, rather than the serverless stuff at Netlify and Vercel. :)
Linode was around before all of those. They were there at the beginning of "cloud".
Linode, Slicehost, MediaTemple and a few others I'm forgetting belong to a declining generation of hosting businesses that used to be popular in their hey days.
I just remembered Engine Yard. Like the others, Engine Yard is another notable one from that era that is still around (but their focus then was on RoR, IIRC).
https://www.engineyard.com/
https://www.engineyard.com/
linode was a very kown hosting provider some time ago, along with hostgator, dreamhost, etc, when everyone was using cPanel and php lol
> If I had to guess their mission, it sounds like Tailscale. [1]
Linode
Li Node
Linux Node
Linode
Li Node
Linux Node
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I certainly have heard about Linode but all historically — probably a decade since that was mentioned as something someone was switching _to_. I think Akamai is looking at the future and figuring that any substantial growth is going to come from directions where their CDN reputation carries more weight.
I have been using a Linode VPS for years. I never talk about it because it always just works. Perhaps that's why? I had never heard of Akamai before they took over Linode. There are bubbles around the world we've never entered. I do hope they continue to upgrade my server for free very couple years just like Linode has always done. If they don't, then we know Linode's true innovation is dead and I may move on.
> I never talk about it because it always just works. Perhaps that's why?
They've been very reliable for me, too. I can't say anything bad about them.
They've been very reliable for me, too. I can't say anything bad about them.
Interesting. Their acquisition of Linode last year is the first time I ever heard of Akamai. I've known of Linode for more than 10 years.
I learned the name "Akamai" when I saw it in the URL for the ~~first~~ second trailer for Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace in 1998.
edit: it was actually the second trailer in '99
edit: it was actually the second trailer in '99
For me, it’s the opposite. Strangely, I’ve never heard of Akamai until this post, but I’ve known about Linode for years.
You should either be an executive, or over 40 to have heard of Akamai. They were all the rave in the beginning of 2000s, but these days they don't need advertisement anymore.
> You should either be an executive, or over 40 to have heard of Akamai.
Well, this premise doesn't apply to me, but there are a lot of people in the world, and we are not all the same. From looking at the other comments here, appears I'm not the only one who is new to Akamai.
Well, this premise doesn't apply to me, but there are a lot of people in the world, and we are not all the same. From looking at the other comments here, appears I'm not the only one who is new to Akamai.
Akamai still has an Oracle/IBM-like reputation. One of the companies that for many years didn't have a sign up page. Instead they wanted anyone who is interested to call their sales people.
It sounds like they have invested heavily into ads to make the Linode brand well known, and as a result, you know about it.
Exactly. Salesforce bought Heroku but kept the brand name.
> Salesforce bought Heroku but kept the brand name.
They kept the name, but killed the product.
They kept the name, but killed the product.
Ditto for Microsoft and Github.
It's morbidly fun to think about how much of the internet would break if github.com no longer resolved.
Surprised, they didn't rebrand to Microhub.
GitSoft would be better but maybe give people the wrong idea.
That sounds like a turn off!
GitHub 365, surely
Pretty sure it would have been git soft.
Because "Linode" is associated with affordable. Akamai stands for premium at $1M+ annually.
In fairness my first thought after reading Linode was those massive DDoS related outages they had. Dunno if that was even within the last decade, still the first thought though.
Anyway they're probably rebranding because Linode doesn't tell you what it is and they're selling to corporate.
They don't want "What is a Linode and why are we paying so much for it" every invoice, haha
RIP Linode.
Anyway they're probably rebranding because Linode doesn't tell you what it is and they're selling to corporate.
They don't want "What is a Linode and why are we paying so much for it" every invoice, haha
RIP Linode.
[deleted]
Likely they're appealing to execs who have never heard of linode but have seen akamai here and there because they simply have been on the web on occassion.
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As an outsider, this feels absurd. Linode had so much good-will and brand recognition built up through their sponsorships and reps.
While Linode is very well known amongst a set of developers the cross-section of customers that overlap between Linode and Akamai is very tiny.
This acquisition was about selling a product to existing Akamai customers so branding it as an Akamai offering allows them to present this as an enterprise ready solution that their customers can trust immediately.
Akamai did $3.6B in trailing twelve month revenue, and even backing out $200MM (being generous here for Linode) that is $3.4B of revenue.
The bigger play for them is to mark up this as a high gross margin offering to their existing CDN customers where they need a bit of compute power to pair with their CDN offering.
Limelight Networks (throw back alert) was doing the same thing back in the day and they approached us (DigitalOcean) in 2012 looking to potentially partner with us so that we can use our software to build an internal white labelled cloud for them that they could resell to their customers.
This is seen as more of a brand extension through product acquisition under the Akamai umbrella rather than something like Microsoft buying Github where that is a service that is known globally by pretty much every developer and what they wanted was the brand and developer clout.
Here there was no real interest from Akamai in the brand, but simply in a robust enough product that they could resell into their existing customer base.
This acquisition was about selling a product to existing Akamai customers so branding it as an Akamai offering allows them to present this as an enterprise ready solution that their customers can trust immediately.
Akamai did $3.6B in trailing twelve month revenue, and even backing out $200MM (being generous here for Linode) that is $3.4B of revenue.
The bigger play for them is to mark up this as a high gross margin offering to their existing CDN customers where they need a bit of compute power to pair with their CDN offering.
Limelight Networks (throw back alert) was doing the same thing back in the day and they approached us (DigitalOcean) in 2012 looking to potentially partner with us so that we can use our software to build an internal white labelled cloud for them that they could resell to their customers.
This is seen as more of a brand extension through product acquisition under the Akamai umbrella rather than something like Microsoft buying Github where that is a service that is known globally by pretty much every developer and what they wanted was the brand and developer clout.
Here there was no real interest from Akamai in the brand, but simply in a robust enough product that they could resell into their existing customer base.
I have nothing much to add except that Akamai paid 900 million for linode, so 200m was a low guess. But linode was debt free and profitable unlike their competitors.
Just yesterday I watched an MJD video on YouTube (mostly retro PC and OS videos) and he always mentions being sponsored by Linode. Since I like MJD, I was inclined to like Linode by association. Bummer it's going away.
So now you'll be inclined to like Akamai by association, what's the actual difference?
Imagine the next generation of VPS in 10-15 years - will they really care about the name "Linode" or "Akamai" as long as it's a great product?
Imagine the next generation of VPS in 10-15 years - will they really care about the name "Linode" or "Akamai" as long as it's a great product?
I have a strong suspicion that the sponsorships will be going away now.
Akamai killed the enthusiast-run Linode to instead create executive-run cloud computing services. That is what the difference is, and why these news are so worrisome for enthusiasts.
Akamai killed the enthusiast-run Linode to instead create executive-run cloud computing services. That is what the difference is, and why these news are so worrisome for enthusiasts.
I get it for the Linode guys. Sell now- server hosting is an arms race against giants. I don’t wanna compete against AWS! I use AWS! Maybe I shouldn’t be? Maybe I should run my software on organic Linux-farmers open source electronic fields that run on hydroelectric power. They can get fiber and backup power too.
Stop using AWS! Linode was great for me up untill they got bought and now they have been doing abrupt "maintenance" work and stuff that Linode never did. But AWS is killing the world and so does companies like Akamai. We need to use pure VPS services and keep moving and not take any shit. I'm sick of it. VPS services should be state-run/owned to end this nonsense.
Had being the key word here. Linode is old history these days.
Discord originally hosted on Linode in 2015. Unfortunately we had to move off, as we knew Linode would be the limiting factor in being able to continue to grow. So we chose to go with GCP.
Unfortunately, I suspect this is something that happens quite often for Linode, which is that, their most successful clients will eventually graduate off of them.
This may reposition their business in such a way that their most successful clients stay with them.
Unfortunately, I suspect this is something that happens quite often for Linode, which is that, their most successful clients will eventually graduate off of them.
This may reposition their business in such a way that their most successful clients stay with them.
This is certainly the goal of Akamai as that is their core business. Linode though targeted the lower and and success stories are much rarer on that end. For every discord you have 100,000+ new clients. Linode was doing fine with this structure and cashed out at nearly a billion with just small customers. Plus discord was probably best to leave as their network wasn’t designed to handle dos attacks well.
Are you still using a lot of bare metal servers? Or solely on GCP?
I’m curious to the reasoning behind a decision like this.
Part of what Akamai bought was the Linode brand name. Anecdotally as a user Linode’s brand seems to have a fair bit of value and positive reputation. Havent they just written off a non-trivial amount of value from what they just acquired?
Or is it as simple as they really want brand consistency?
Part of what Akamai bought was the Linode brand name. Anecdotally as a user Linode’s brand seems to have a fair bit of value and positive reputation. Havent they just written off a non-trivial amount of value from what they just acquired?
Or is it as simple as they really want brand consistency?
I anecdotally agree. For some reason I find Akamai’s brand in general very uninspiring and this particular rebrand is the typical low effort corporate affair… they’ve literally swapped the logo and kept all the Linode green elsewhere as well as various mentions of Linode everywhere that haven’t been updated and now look out of place.
You would be surprised how deep branding tentacles reach. Sometimes up to constants in protocols that need a migration cycle to change. If you want to transition without stopping all active development and operations, you have to do it gradually.
It's strange how the brand means so much. They've made it obvious to me that I (small time solo developer but long time Linode customer) am not their target market now.
I was uncertain I would keep using them after the acquisition, but oddly (and despite no technical changes) this has convinced me I need to leave. The only associations I have with the Akamai brand are "enterprise" and "overpriced."
I was uncertain I would keep using them after the acquisition, but oddly (and despite no technical changes) this has convinced me I need to leave. The only associations I have with the Akamai brand are "enterprise" and "overpriced."
Exactly...I pay $$ for linode as soon as that turns to $$$, count me out.
Checkout Hetzner. You will love their infrastructure. You will love their price.
Do you know how Hetzner is when something happens?
Say you receive a fraudulent DMCA takedown request. Or someone doesn't like what you're hosting there (like the recent core-js situation where they receive a lot of hate) and somehow sends a complain/report to Hetzner.
Would Hetzner shutdown the VPS first and ask questions later? Or would they approach me first?
I'm taking this chance to move from Linde to a different provider, so I'm interested in how they handle situations like this.
Say you receive a fraudulent DMCA takedown request. Or someone doesn't like what you're hosting there (like the recent core-js situation where they receive a lot of hate) and somehow sends a complain/report to Hetzner.
Would Hetzner shutdown the VPS first and ask questions later? Or would they approach me first?
I'm taking this chance to move from Linde to a different provider, so I'm interested in how they handle situations like this.
By law Linode is supposed to turn off and wait for a counter claim. Most companies forward and wait forward. Hetzner is not fast to react on abuse and are quite large.
Do you perhaps have any affiliation to disclose? This reads like ad copy.
Can confirm. For me, Hetzner has been great.
It also makes no sense to me, if you want an offering with a different name, just add it to the UI and call the same backend to provision the resources. I bet the majority of customers will never know or care that the other one is the same thing with a different name.
Our marketing team is crap, there’s no consistency e.g. we acquired prolexic and still use that brand.
Internally a number of the engineers are scratching our heads at this one.
Internally a number of the engineers are scratching our heads at this one.
probably execs wanted to abosord linode the easiest way posible
I don't particularly see Linode as a valuable brand, more one to avoid.
RIP Linode. It was the 2nd (after Slicehost) "cloud service" I was introduced to back then in 2009 I believe, when my, back then CTO, insisted that "cloud" is the way to go and some job skills (sysadmin) will eventually fade and turn irrelevant. 3 years later same CTO complained that I made other teams within that startup look bad by using Hetzner and OVH duo instead of Amazon's then still relatively new AWS - bills were telling the story way better than I could!
Basically the same here. I used Slicehost until they were acquired by Rackspace... and for a while afterwards, truth be told. Inertia is a real thing, let me tell you.
After Slicehost/Rackspace, my next VPS provider was Linode. To be fair, I do also use Amazon for some stuff, but mostly just transient instances, and limited use of some of their more specialized services like SNS.
I experimented with Hetzner and OVH, and wound up deciding to migrate my stuff to OVH. So far so good, but as mentioned in another thread, while I'm fairly happy with OVH, there are a few little "gotcha's" here and there.
After Slicehost/Rackspace, my next VPS provider was Linode. To be fair, I do also use Amazon for some stuff, but mostly just transient instances, and limited use of some of their more specialized services like SNS.
I experimented with Hetzner and OVH, and wound up deciding to migrate my stuff to OVH. So far so good, but as mentioned in another thread, while I'm fairly happy with OVH, there are a few little "gotcha's" here and there.
Slicehost on HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4840718
Fun fact, Jason Seats who founded slicehost was massively important in helping us get DigitalOcean going.
Slicehost was my favorite no frills hosting provider. I had to migrate to them from Servepath after it was shutdown in 2008?
As a customer it makes me nervous Akamai have decided to ignore Linode's great brand name and good will. If they ignore one of Linode's best assets that took a lot of hard work to create then I fear future decision making. I think I'll get ready to move should Akamai continue with the same kind of decision making.
As a former customer, what great brand name and good will?
I still remember having to work 20 hours _on fucking Christmas Day_ because they had no meaningful DDoS protection in place.
Thankfully I had been working for the past 3 months on a DR strategy and the 20 hours of work was an extended switch-flipping operation because I was prepared. That was the last day we were a Linode customer.
I still remember having to work 20 hours _on fucking Christmas Day_ because they had no meaningful DDoS protection in place.
Thankfully I had been working for the past 3 months on a DR strategy and the 20 hours of work was an extended switch-flipping operation because I was prepared. That was the last day we were a Linode customer.
I had to work for hours over several weeks because Digital Ocean _did_ have DDoS protection, that was awful.
We had an SSH-only machine (that ran backups), but because someone was spraying traffic at the non-operational port 80/443, they kept on disconnecting the network and requiring manual intervention from their support team to reinstate networking.
When we asked them to please stop disconnecting our database backup machine from the network, their answer was "put Cloudflare in front of it". They didn't have the technical knowledge to understand why this was a stupid recommendation.
We solved this by moving everything off Digital Ocean. Like Linode, a perfectly reasonable day-1 solution, and not bad for ancillary services, but not something I'd run production systems on long term.
We had an SSH-only machine (that ran backups), but because someone was spraying traffic at the non-operational port 80/443, they kept on disconnecting the network and requiring manual intervention from their support team to reinstate networking.
When we asked them to please stop disconnecting our database backup machine from the network, their answer was "put Cloudflare in front of it". They didn't have the technical knowledge to understand why this was a stupid recommendation.
We solved this by moving everything off Digital Ocean. Like Linode, a perfectly reasonable day-1 solution, and not bad for ancillary services, but not something I'd run production systems on long term.
Fascinating that Akamai apparently thinks that the brand equity of "Linode" is less than whatever people will impute to some new "Akamai cloud computing" among their target customer base. Which is...puzzling!
I can only assume this is an attempt at targeting enterprise; tons of engineers know Linode (and given how long they've been around, there's probably plenty of enterprise CTOs around now with fond memories of the project they spun up in college on Linode), but it wouldn't be my first (or fifth) thought for a large cloud deployment.
I guess Akamai wants to change that, and is happy to just toss the old brand in the dumpster to do it.
I've used Linode a few times over the years for various small projects, and never had anything but positive experiences. I'm not sure I would have had cause to turn to them again, but...there's basically zero chance of me turning to Akamai cloud computing, so for me, I think this is the end of the road with them.
I can only assume this is an attempt at targeting enterprise; tons of engineers know Linode (and given how long they've been around, there's probably plenty of enterprise CTOs around now with fond memories of the project they spun up in college on Linode), but it wouldn't be my first (or fifth) thought for a large cloud deployment.
I guess Akamai wants to change that, and is happy to just toss the old brand in the dumpster to do it.
I've used Linode a few times over the years for various small projects, and never had anything but positive experiences. I'm not sure I would have had cause to turn to them again, but...there's basically zero chance of me turning to Akamai cloud computing, so for me, I think this is the end of the road with them.
I think that the assumption is more along the lines that the cost of losing the Linode brand is lower than the value that can be built from brand awareness around Akamai.
As long as they don't change the nature of the service, they might not be wrong - people are unlikely to switch providers over just a name change, and people looking into Linode probably won't care that it's now called something else.
Conversely, lower information decision makers might be drawn into an ecosystem that is advertising a degree of consistency through unified branding.
As long as they don't change the nature of the service, they might not be wrong - people are unlikely to switch providers over just a name change, and people looking into Linode probably won't care that it's now called something else.
Conversely, lower information decision makers might be drawn into an ecosystem that is advertising a degree of consistency through unified branding.
I think anyone with the experience of Linode's good points isn't going to forget from a renaming of the service if all else stays the same for them. Having Akamai branding can bring in much more new business that the Linode branding hasn't brought in thus far.
I’ve had an account and small mail server on Linode for almost 19 years, and it has done all I need.
* run reliably * static IP that other mail servers trust * staff who are willing to reach out to other larger mail providers if a linode ip range it is in got blocked.
* run reliably * static IP that other mail servers trust * staff who are willing to reach out to other larger mail providers if a linode ip range it is in got blocked.
I hope they will keep what is good about Linode.
Adding new good things is a bonus.
I can understand changing the name. Among other reasons, I wouldn't want to be doing B2B sales and trying to explain to the customer what "Linode" is.
The name "Linode" has an old-school charm, from a particular period and demographic, but I'd guess that's not how they're making most of their money nowadays.
And, hey, ACC (Akamai Connected Cloud) comes alphabetically before AWS, Azure, and GCP.
Adding new good things is a bonus.
I can understand changing the name. Among other reasons, I wouldn't want to be doing B2B sales and trying to explain to the customer what "Linode" is.
The name "Linode" has an old-school charm, from a particular period and demographic, but I'd guess that's not how they're making most of their money nowadays.
And, hey, ACC (Akamai Connected Cloud) comes alphabetically before AWS, Azure, and GCP.
At least been with Linode for the last 15 years, I'm used to the brand, you change it, I may just leave.
Linode was solid for me over the years, I noticed DigitalOcean might be a big threat to it early on, now might be the time for me to finally migrate there.
Linode was solid for me over the years, I noticed DigitalOcean might be a big threat to it early on, now might be the time for me to finally migrate there.
I don't get what the big deal is about the name.
Yes, I like linode and run most of my business on it.
They changed the name.
I'm not switching until they "kill" the product. If the uptime remains good, the service remains good, why switch??
Yes, I like linode and run most of my business on it.
They changed the name.
I'm not switching until they "kill" the product. If the uptime remains good, the service remains good, why switch??
The name change indicates Akamai’s intentions for the Linode platform. Linode is a well-established brand with developers, smaller agencies, small businesses, hobbyists,and so on. Akamai is an enterprise brand that serves large businesses. They have never had an interest in serving the sort of people who know about and like Linode. Dropping the Linode brand is evidence they continue to have no interest in that market segment. It now seems more likely that Akamai wanted a ready-made cloud platform to sell to their enterprise customers. That’s why Linode users are worried about the name change; it indicates they are no longer the market their preferred platform cares about.
I've been with DO for 8 years. Still happy with them.
Linode was my first VPS provider in 2004 or 2005, it had a special part in my heart.
I'm a bit sad Linode is gone, but for what it's worth, thanks Linode.
I'm a bit sad Linode is gone, but for what it's worth, thanks Linode.
I wonder how employees feel about that change and how they feel since the acquisition. A key determinant in whether I stay with Akamai or not is if I know there are competent developers behind the cloud that care and would use the service. Other determinants: simplicity, performance in the UI and pricing that makes sense for an individual developer.
It feels like Linode was small enough to care, which was a key differentiator with other cloud offerings. Now, that advantage is gone with a major name like Akamai. On the other hand, it might be easier to convince people to consider Linode's platform as an alternative to other more expensive clouds.
It feels like Linode was small enough to care, which was a key differentiator with other cloud offerings. Now, that advantage is gone with a major name like Akamai. On the other hand, it might be easier to convince people to consider Linode's platform as an alternative to other more expensive clouds.
> Other determinants: simplicity, performance in the UI and pricing that makes sense for an individual developer.
This is my main fear: morphing into some AWSgoogleCloudflare behemoth with a bazillion knobs and complex unpredictable pricing plans. I choose Linode specifically to avoid that time sink. Thankfully there are other's that are supposed to be similar to Linode in this respect, but I've grown to like Linode over the years, and their UI has become pretty refined, but that may be subjective.
This is my main fear: morphing into some AWSgoogleCloudflare behemoth with a bazillion knobs and complex unpredictable pricing plans. I choose Linode specifically to avoid that time sink. Thankfully there are other's that are supposed to be similar to Linode in this respect, but I've grown to like Linode over the years, and their UI has become pretty refined, but that may be subjective.
Also, the few times over the years (more than 10) when I had to get hold of their customer service they were pretty good. Last time around I contacted them on a Sunday afternoon and they got back to me later that evening, no AI automatic response, no other bs like that.
I agree, I think the people saying it's irrelevant haven't used them in years, they had one of the best set of controls I've seen.
What’s a good alternative for Linode these days? I just want a vps where I can install Debian, be root, and have a web and email server. A 4gb Linode has been enough for my needs for years.
Vultr is amazing on price/performance. I use it as a lab cloud, and for my more fun (or Windows) workloads. You slightly sacrifice reliability, but you get interesting options including odd OSes, and per-hour dedicated hardware. Definitely an innovative bunch.
DigitalOcean offers solid uptime, a more professional operation, and typically better performance than Linode in benchmarks (https://www.vpsbenchmarks.com/screener). It has confusing marketing, but a good account dashboard and good docco/service. They're more in line with Linode, and will probably be the big winners if Linode/Akamai continue losing steam.
I wouldn't go with OVH, and I would use caution with cheaper providers, unless you're comfortable with the risk of hiring people who would willingly build wooden data centres with no fire safely. There is such a thing as "too cheap". (https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/news/ovhcloud-fire-rep...)
DigitalOcean offers solid uptime, a more professional operation, and typically better performance than Linode in benchmarks (https://www.vpsbenchmarks.com/screener). It has confusing marketing, but a good account dashboard and good docco/service. They're more in line with Linode, and will probably be the big winners if Linode/Akamai continue losing steam.
I wouldn't go with OVH, and I would use caution with cheaper providers, unless you're comfortable with the risk of hiring people who would willingly build wooden data centres with no fire safely. There is such a thing as "too cheap". (https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/news/ovhcloud-fire-rep...)
> The Bas-Rhin fire service says that the SBG2 data center had no automatic fire extinguishing system and no general electrical cut-off switch. The facility also had a wooden ceiling rated to resist fire for only one hour, and a free-cooling design that created "chimneys" that increased the fire's ferocity.
I recall seeing headlines here about the fires, but I didn't know their construction was this bad.
I recall seeing headlines here about the fires, but I didn't know their construction was this bad.
Vultr is great for various locations. https://www.vultr.com/features/datacenter-locations/
Vultr lets you bring your own ISO if they don't have exactly what you want.
I second Vultr. They also have more advanced networking features, mainly BGP peering, that are uncommon with larger VPS providers. Their network seems super reliable.
Linode is still fine I think. A few months ago I looked around a bit for alternatives as I wondered if there are better deals out there, and nothing really jumped out as "wow, this obviously offers a much better price/quality service!"
DigitalOcean seems about on-par; OVH and Hetzner are cheaper but seem less reliable, etc. Much depends on your exact needs of course.
Who will know what Akamai will do in the future, but you can say "who knows what $anything will do in the future?" too. It's been a year and nothing has radically changed as near as I can tell. A naming rebrand is rather superficial.
DigitalOcean seems about on-par; OVH and Hetzner are cheaper but seem less reliable, etc. Much depends on your exact needs of course.
Who will know what Akamai will do in the future, but you can say "who knows what $anything will do in the future?" too. It's been a year and nothing has radically changed as near as I can tell. A naming rebrand is rather superficial.
What makes you think that Hetzner "seem" to be less reliable?
Hetzner is nice and cheap and now has two US data centers, but you will need to contact support to get SMTP ports unblocked I believe.
If you had a 4GB/2-CPU Linode for $30, you could get an 8GB/2-CPU from Hetzner for €21.85 (~$23.45). If you were using Linode's shared-CPU nodes, that $20 4GB VPS would be €7.55 on Hetzner (~$8.10) or even €5.35 in their European data centers (~$5.74, their European data centers offer both Intel or AMD processors so you can get a 4GB/2-CPU intel box there, but in the US they're only offering their AMD servers which include 3-CPU so it's a tad more expensive due to fewer options).
If you had a 4GB/2-CPU Linode for $30, you could get an 8GB/2-CPU from Hetzner for €21.85 (~$23.45). If you were using Linode's shared-CPU nodes, that $20 4GB VPS would be €7.55 on Hetzner (~$8.10) or even €5.35 in their European data centers (~$5.74, their European data centers offer both Intel or AMD processors so you can get a 4GB/2-CPU intel box there, but in the US they're only offering their AMD servers which include 3-CPU so it's a tad more expensive due to fewer options).
I have a very bad, failed signing up experience with them...
DigitalOcean is the most serious developer-first cloud, in my biased opinion as an ex employee. I still use their cloud whenever I need to run something because I know it's mostly well built, price/performance is almost unrivalled. I'd run my stuff on DO before Azure all the time, and before AWS and GCP for most workloads where the DO feature set is sufficient.
Until they start crippling Linode or increase their prices, I'll keep using it. Doesn't look like anything has changed yet except for the logo.
Yep. I've been running all my personal stuff on Linode for 11 years. Does this bode well? No. Am I going to migrate over a swapped logo? Also no.
I liked Linode but moved to AWS Lightsail several years ago. I like it, simple pricing, I use Google Domains though Lightsail gives you some with the VPS. I don't like the cloud pricing of Route53 which is why I use Google Domains. Otherwise I like the VPS style nature of Lightsail. For my own self-hosting, it's all I need.
The downsides to Lightsail are highlighted in their article: https://aws.amazon.com/premiumsupport/knowledge-center/light...
The downsides to Lightsail are highlighted in their article: https://aws.amazon.com/premiumsupport/knowledge-center/light...
https://mnx.io and would be happy to have you! We're a small team with great support -- since 2012.
You won't get many movers with 2x the price of L:inode for comparable instances...
I do understand.. and sometimes cheap is what you want. When you want something else -- like customer service, this is where mnx.io shines. I would consider mnx.io to be a boutique cloud provider, prioritize quality/reliability and customer service, allowing us to build close relationships with our customers. As a boutique provider, we know most of our customers by name and focus on providing the resources necessary to ensure reliable, long-term sustainability.
Well I don't know much about Linode customer service because it all worked fine for 14 years... only thing I got is "your node is going to be migrated in X days, or press this key to migrate it now" few times when they were upgrading for new hardware.
The one single issue I had 10 years ago was fixed within minutes of opening ticket too. So you're basically trying to advertise to a bunch of customers happy with service that's also cheaper than your service and offers more options (hosted databases, object store, DNS hosting)
The one single issue I had 10 years ago was fixed within minutes of opening ticket too. So you're basically trying to advertise to a bunch of customers happy with service that's also cheaper than your service and offers more options (hosted databases, object store, DNS hosting)
That’s a great experience with Linode.. We’re certainly expanding our options and with our recent acquisition of Joyent’s Triton DataCenter it’s also 100% open source — maybe one day we get to talk again! Thanks for the feedback too.
In many cases you can get the server capacity you need for free: https://paul.totterman.name/posts/free-clouds/ . But hetzner has been my go to when that isn't enough. Here's a referral link: https://hetzner.cloud/?ref=GxNGm9jZSUZP (benefits both you and me)
Hetzner
I traced email spam back to Hetzner servers. They refused to shut down the spammers. So I will refuse to do business with those crooks.
To be fair I've traced malicious network attempts from Linode, Digital Ocean, Vultr, Hetzner... pretty much everyone, I assume due to the prevalence of vulnerable wordpress sites becoming part of botnets.
All providers will get abused, the difference is in the response.
Namecheap lost all my 'loyalty' when I started tracing where all the SMS phish sites I was getting were hosted.
Finding out this was Namecheap didn't sour me. Finding out they don't take the sites down quickly enough* to be worth reporting put the wheels in motion to move all my domains off them.
Unfortunately I can no longer find what ticked me off in the first place as search engines are full of blogs writing about their recent email breach.
* The NSC seems to agree with me rather than my expectations being too high (PDF, page 8) https://www.ncsc.gov.uk/files/Active-Cyber-Defence-ACD-The-F...
> Looking specifically at the number of campaigns hosted by NameCheap against its monthly median attack availability, we see that by mid-year the median takedown times were consistently in excess of 60 hours. This undoubtedly made NameCheap an attractive proposition to host phishing and may explain the rise in monthly hosted campaigns that followed for UK government-themed phishing.
Namecheap lost all my 'loyalty' when I started tracing where all the SMS phish sites I was getting were hosted.
Finding out this was Namecheap didn't sour me. Finding out they don't take the sites down quickly enough* to be worth reporting put the wheels in motion to move all my domains off them.
Unfortunately I can no longer find what ticked me off in the first place as search engines are full of blogs writing about their recent email breach.
* The NSC seems to agree with me rather than my expectations being too high (PDF, page 8) https://www.ncsc.gov.uk/files/Active-Cyber-Defence-ACD-The-F...
> Looking specifically at the number of campaigns hosted by NameCheap against its monthly median attack availability, we see that by mid-year the median takedown times were consistently in excess of 60 hours. This undoubtedly made NameCheap an attractive proposition to host phishing and may explain the rise in monthly hosted campaigns that followed for UK government-themed phishing.
For GPU instances, Lambda Cloud has A100s for $1.10/hr and A10 instances for $0.60/hr.
https://lambdalabs.com/service/gpu-cloud
https://lambdalabs.com/service/gpu-cloud
Hetzner been solid for me.
I’ve had good a good experience with UpCloud so far.
Just signup for the free Oracle cloud
I despise Oracle with every bone in my body... but I must admit their Always-Free tier is the best deal in the game. 4 ARM cores to divvy up among 24gb of memory however you please... oh, and you get 2 extra 1c1gb x86 servers for whatever else you need. You want that on AWS, it will run you at least $40/month. Plus you get a better management interface with Oracle to boot. For any cash-strapped devs trying to make a simple build server or setup a remote dev environment, this seems like the best option to me.
I depreciated like $15/month of Vultr VPSes last weekend by switching to their offerings. It's not the fastest but damn, it makes me wish it wasn't an apology for their crimes against FOSSmanity.
I depreciated like $15/month of Vultr VPSes last weekend by switching to their offerings. It's not the fastest but damn, it makes me wish it wasn't an apology for their crimes against FOSSmanity.
Have tried, it's literally impossible for me to do it. I must be on some kind of internal blacklist. It's the only experience I've ever had with a company that took my details and refuses to explain why they won't let me have an account.
How about digitalocean? or vultr?
DigitalOcean has been a good companion to Linode. It seems like many of the offerings are either on par or better, though some prices are a little higher.
if you can a mini pc with proxmox, portainer, a domain name and cloudflare DDNS
OVH
I started migrating from Linode to OVH a while back (Probably a year and a half or so ago). Parked the migration for a while, and started in earnest again a couple of months ago. All told, my experiences with OVH have been fairly positive. There's a quirk here and there that annoys me, but the same is true for every cloud provider to some extent. Still, on balance, I'd have no problem recommending OVH.
If anybody cares to know, the single biggest annoyance I have with them is this: you can't launch a VPS that comes up with an ssh key pre-configured for passwordless ssh access, at least not the first time around. Unless they've changed it recently anyway, the option to specify an ssh key only appears in the menu for re-installing an existing VPS. For a brand new one, your options are:
1. Turn around and immediately re-install it, so they add the key for you
2. Receive the password for the newly created instance in an email, and use it to login, upload the key, and configure passwordless ssh.
I wound up writing a script to do the latter, so all I do is wait for the email to come, paste the password and IP into my script, and fire it off and it copies the key, and makes a few other small tweaks, then does sudo dnf -y upgrade, and then a sudo reboot.
Once all that finishes I use Ansible to do everything else. By and large it all just works and is fine, but not being able to have the VPS come up with the ssh key already configured initially still bugs me a bit.
If anybody cares to know, the single biggest annoyance I have with them is this: you can't launch a VPS that comes up with an ssh key pre-configured for passwordless ssh access, at least not the first time around. Unless they've changed it recently anyway, the option to specify an ssh key only appears in the menu for re-installing an existing VPS. For a brand new one, your options are:
1. Turn around and immediately re-install it, so they add the key for you
2. Receive the password for the newly created instance in an email, and use it to login, upload the key, and configure passwordless ssh.
I wound up writing a script to do the latter, so all I do is wait for the email to come, paste the password and IP into my script, and fire it off and it copies the key, and makes a few other small tweaks, then does sudo dnf -y upgrade, and then a sudo reboot.
Once all that finishes I use Ansible to do everything else. By and large it all just works and is fine, but not being able to have the VPS come up with the ssh key already configured initially still bugs me a bit.
I think I accidentally removed my key remotely one time but thankfully the dashboard had a kvm
Anyone have a good lead on a provider that doesn't mind if you... use the BitTorrent protocol in a way that might get a few notices?
[deleted]
Akamai Node would have been a better name. Still retains the essence of the old name, and still indicates a small cheap VPS offering. "Connected Cloud" could mean anything.
It is a reasonable business decision if we think of it as combining the enterprise branding of Akamai and the solid product behind Linode.
Instead of throwing away the brand, I just wish they retained the Linode name as a sub brand targeted at developers something like OVH and kimsufi (if that even makes sense).
To get an idea of what their intentions and goals behind this move are, we'll have to wait and see how the existing Linode customers will be treated w.r.t the product pricing & direction.
Instead of throwing away the brand, I just wish they retained the Linode name as a sub brand targeted at developers something like OVH and kimsufi (if that even makes sense).
To get an idea of what their intentions and goals behind this move are, we'll have to wait and see how the existing Linode customers will be treated w.r.t the product pricing & direction.
Personal experience is that akamai is very expensive, has poor api integration, and limited set of real world features (especially regarding certificate management, for example), poor response times when "expert" is needed, and experts needed often due to lack of api...
Didn't know about this acquisition, seems like a bad outcome.
YMMV, of course.
We used linode since 2007, and the experience was good. Would be sad for it to end up being swallowed by some huge soulless corporation which is acutely aware of preserving their own brand.
It's funny to see Akamai called a soulless corp. I still remember when they IPO'd in late 1999. It was viewed very positively in academic circles too.
Incidentally, I just looked at the stock price from back then and it was higher than it is now. Post dotcom bubble the stock never reached those highs again.
Incidentally, I just looked at the stock price from back then and it was higher than it is now. Post dotcom bubble the stock never reached those highs again.
In those days a lot of the staff were MIT alumni and a ton of MIT students did internships there, thus the academia connection.
Ultimately it became a ball of mud/perl and fell behind contemporaries as CDN as a concept was commoditised. Their decline in market cap is directly attributable to this trend.
Meanwhile the 2 main newcomers used aggressive strategies to eat their lunch. On the web side CloudFlare offered free TLS termination and eventually basic CDN features for free. Something Akamai never acquired was the many-account scalability to do because their platform is so high touch.
Fastly attacked their entrenched video and media business, primarily with very efficient systems, compelling pricing and Varnish compatibility rather than ball of perl w/bespoke settings etc.
These days Akamai is the dinosaur and CloudFlare is pretty much the new incumbent, at least in terms of market share.
Compute at the edge is the new thing in town and Cloudflare and Fastly both have fairly high quality solutions while Akamai again falls behind.
Ultimately it became a ball of mud/perl and fell behind contemporaries as CDN as a concept was commoditised. Their decline in market cap is directly attributable to this trend.
Meanwhile the 2 main newcomers used aggressive strategies to eat their lunch. On the web side CloudFlare offered free TLS termination and eventually basic CDN features for free. Something Akamai never acquired was the many-account scalability to do because their platform is so high touch.
Fastly attacked their entrenched video and media business, primarily with very efficient systems, compelling pricing and Varnish compatibility rather than ball of perl w/bespoke settings etc.
These days Akamai is the dinosaur and CloudFlare is pretty much the new incumbent, at least in terms of market share.
Compute at the edge is the new thing in town and Cloudflare and Fastly both have fairly high quality solutions while Akamai again falls behind.
RIP Linode.
First VPS provider I used. Although I haven't used it in a while, it's still sad to see the brand go away and be replaced with such a bland corporate one.
First VPS provider I used. Although I haven't used it in a while, it's still sad to see the brand go away and be replaced with such a bland corporate one.
Same! It is still the only ad conversion I’ve ever been: I saw their ad on sourceforge.net, clicked, and bought a VPS. That was probably 20 years ago, and I can’t think of another time I’ve clicked an ad and bought anything.
Linode was my second VPS provider.
My first was Slicehost. I remember the big Slicehost vs Linode wars.
My first was Slicehost. I remember the big Slicehost vs Linode wars.
I remember using them when I first started getting into Linux. Lots of good memories getting Debian to work on my Thinkpad X40 and marveling at having a cheap shell account online all the time from Linode. It felt like the future.
RIP, it sounds so generic like IBM/Oracle cloud service
Well, that's it for me. I've been nervous since the acquisition, but that post has all the telltale signs of imminent brand doom. I've had a few small services running on Linode for years I'll be pulling the plug on/moving to other providers.
I’ve been a Linode customer for well over a decade and am sad to see them go. They always felt like a part of the older hacker culture that hadn’t been destroyed by corporations yet, and we all know where this is leading. Guess it’s time to explore alternatives.
Do you remember good old times when almost every Linode birthday they bumped either memory x2, storage space or something else, for free?
Odd decision. People know Linode and the logo.
Possibly more people know Akamai?
A completely different crowd associates Akamai with anything positive, IME.
> What won’t change is the price-performance, portability, and award-winning support that developers love.
At least they put "love" and "developers" in the same sentence. I think they still love me.
(https://www.linode.com/blog/linode/a-bold-new-approach-to-th...)
At least they put "love" and "developers" in the same sentence. I think they still love me.
(https://www.linode.com/blog/linode/a-bold-new-approach-to-th...)
Hmm seems to be missing an obvious improvement: A more cost-sensitive version of akamai's CDN (which has a pricetag of "become fortune 500 and we'll be in touch") available to linode customers. Or does linode already have a CDN? I just want something like cloudflare where my image and video files are distributed to the edge network and post-processed into a variety of sizes.
I completely ignored Linode after they were hacked[1] ~10 years ago. I had one of their $5 VPS for many years, that was running an old blog of mine, which I migrated to another VPS provider.
[1]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5552756
[1]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5552756
I'm hoping this means they will finally build a cloud product that can compete, but if the same management is there, probably not. What a sad product lineup and UX. DO, Hetzner, etc have much better products. But nerds love pushing buttons and looking at stats, so somehow Linode's limited functionality and constant maintenance-induced downtime don't seem to faze them. Brands are so weird.
If they wanted to, they could automate OpenStack clusters, give people admin over a fully featured open source private cloud, and charge per hour. A few providers (mostly in Europe) have done it and it's an amazing experience. But I guess nobody thinks there's a market for an AWS/GCP/Azure competitor, and charging for a month at a time is more stable money.
If they wanted to, they could automate OpenStack clusters, give people admin over a fully featured open source private cloud, and charge per hour. A few providers (mostly in Europe) have done it and it's an amazing experience. But I guess nobody thinks there's a market for an AWS/GCP/Azure competitor, and charging for a month at a time is more stable money.
What products does DO offer that Linode doesn’t?
I always thought they seemed pretty much equivalent for both price and features (though Linode did take an age to implement cloud firewalls).
I’ve personally hosted about 30 servers with them for about 15 years, did look at DO a few times but it didn’t seem worthwhile to migrate everything over (and I preferred that Linode were privately owned vs the VC backed DO).
I always thought they seemed pretty much equivalent for both price and features (though Linode did take an age to implement cloud firewalls).
I’ve personally hosted about 30 servers with them for about 15 years, did look at DO a few times but it didn’t seem worthwhile to migrate everything over (and I preferred that Linode were privately owned vs the VC backed DO).
DO has had both an app platform and serverless functions for a while, and Linode has neither (they have edge computing which is similar but different to serverless)
DO has managed website hosting, Linode doesn't (they just explain to you how to create a website, which is still you managing it)
DO gives you VPCs out of the box, but Linode basically doesn't, requiring clunky and limited custom networking configuration. VPCs are table stakes at this point.
DO has been offering K8s for years, while for Linode it's been sort of an experiment. (Even Linode's pricing for K8s was hidden for a while)
DO has had managed databases for a long time, Linode only recently
DO has provided object storage for a long time, Linode only recently
DO has the most amazing documentation and community forums of any cloud service provider. Linode has a fraction of the guides and very limited docs. They dump you into this doc wasteland which doesn't explain things.
DO products are intuitive, simple and easy, and just work. Linode on the other hand feels like it was designed by somebody's little cousin in 2003 (even after the redesigns, somehow the UX got worse). Doing basic things like configuring your VM's networking has a horrible UX, with stuff just not working at all with no explanation why (last time I used it).
For the people who never touch their VMs and never use new features, of course Linode seems fine. For people who want a better experience, DO blows them out of the water completely. And you don't get VMs constantly having maintenance windows with DO, or entire data centers constantly losing connectivity.
DO has managed website hosting, Linode doesn't (they just explain to you how to create a website, which is still you managing it)
DO gives you VPCs out of the box, but Linode basically doesn't, requiring clunky and limited custom networking configuration. VPCs are table stakes at this point.
DO has been offering K8s for years, while for Linode it's been sort of an experiment. (Even Linode's pricing for K8s was hidden for a while)
DO has had managed databases for a long time, Linode only recently
DO has provided object storage for a long time, Linode only recently
DO has the most amazing documentation and community forums of any cloud service provider. Linode has a fraction of the guides and very limited docs. They dump you into this doc wasteland which doesn't explain things.
DO products are intuitive, simple and easy, and just work. Linode on the other hand feels like it was designed by somebody's little cousin in 2003 (even after the redesigns, somehow the UX got worse). Doing basic things like configuring your VM's networking has a horrible UX, with stuff just not working at all with no explanation why (last time I used it).
For the people who never touch their VMs and never use new features, of course Linode seems fine. For people who want a better experience, DO blows them out of the water completely. And you don't get VMs constantly having maintenance windows with DO, or entire data centers constantly losing connectivity.
Ask HN: I was just about to sign up to their Managed service offering (basically they monitor the VPS's and if a monitored URL goes down they do initial trouble shooting for the basics to bring things back online before they contact you). I've rarely seen this offered elsewhere. Any other hosting co's HN knows about that does this (and had good experiences with?) ? Vultr doesn't from what I can see. I prefer my servers a little less than crispy so OVH isn't on the menu.
[ I had my first network interruption on my VPS in years this weekend... so just a touch nervous and looking at other options ]
[ I had my first network interruption on my VPS in years this weekend... so just a touch nervous and looking at other options ]
Rack space (used?) to offer something like this and it was somewhat worthwhile if what you were doing was bog-standard.
I found that if you were even a bit off the beaten path they didn’t do much more than reboot and check if the disks had filled up.
I found that if you were even a bit off the beaten path they didn’t do much more than reboot and check if the disks had filled up.
Yeah I remember from back in the day. The Linode offering (assuming it works) gives some degree of confidence if a key person or two are out of action, you still can get back online if it's something not app related. And it's almost always the stupid stuff or an Apache reboot to get back online. For the money is worth that initial peace of mind.
In that awkward in-between phase of starting to grow and not quite there yet for another set of back-end hands :)
In that awkward in-between phase of starting to grow and not quite there yet for another set of back-end hands :)
I was actually thinking of how this story reminded me that Rackspace's cloud product started off as the acquisition of Slicehost.
At MNX, we manage your infrastructure at your existing provider or ours (mnx.io) and provide 24x7 monitoring and response. Our customers usually have 10+ servers, and pricing starts at ~$2500/month.
Thanks for the response. A bit too spendy for an early stage (bootstrapped!) product. For comparison Linode charges $100USD/month per VPS.
It does look to be a good price/value.. though I wonder if they continue with that under Akamai. We're at the $250/server price point -- and we include a number of items:
- Realtime kernel/lib patching.
- Patch management.
- 24x7 monitoring and response.
- Metric collections, alerting, and health reviews.
- Tuning and infrastructure best practices wherever you are (AWS/GCP/Azure/mnx/colo).
- Ad-hoc support - example this week -- one customer who runs large ecommerce valentine day related -- needed eyes on all infrastructure. We sat in slack with them, and huddled realtime to work through any issues.Thanks - appreciate the reply ! Will keep you guys in mind in the future. Translating it into real terms, at an early (early) stage bootstrapped, $2500USD/month = $48'000NZD per annum which is about 1/3 of a good full stack salary in New Zealand.
I can certainly see in future when we're a bit bigger it might be interesting and having a lot more infrastructure to manage - but right now when we've barely (infact only once in past year had an issue) then not quite justifiable.
Like I say, it's that awful middle ground of "can't really justify it, but also would like to be able to switch off!" I'll reach out to stay in touch for future.
I can certainly see in future when we're a bit bigger it might be interesting and having a lot more infrastructure to manage - but right now when we've barely (infact only once in past year had an issue) then not quite justifiable.
Like I say, it's that awful middle ground of "can't really justify it, but also would like to be able to switch off!" I'll reach out to stay in touch for future.
Missed opportunity. Why not use https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lanikai_Beach
or even https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laniakea ? Like Linode and Akamai, nice like the beach, vast like the supercluster, easy like Ikea?
Good work Linode team, a worthy sparring partner for many years. I must say, although it makes sense, my nostalgic nerd heart is sad to see the brand die.
Popped up yesterday:
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34786762
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34786762
Akamai must be feeling the pressure from Cloudflare.
Interesting way to reduce that pressure - I suspect that intention is to acquire some "dev friendly" company and try to replicate what CF is doing when it comes to capturing developers mindshare, exposing knowledge of availabile and offered services etc.
Instead of working to make Akamai brand services more accessible and not perceived as stinky corporate concrete slab they decided to just buy something with good reputation among developers.
General strategy is somewhat good because otherwise (I think) they will be very slowly moved into obsolescence by CF but the execution..
It is difficult to comprehend the rationale behind the decision to abandon a longstanding and well-known brand name that has endured for over two decades, and replace it with the rather awkward and unappealing moniker of "Connected Cloud."
One might reasonably question the wisdom of such a decision and its potential impact on the perception of the brand by consumers.
One might reasonably question the wisdom of such a decision and its potential impact on the perception of the brand by consumers.
Pour one out for our departed homies. RIP Linode.
Anyone here can comment on how good or bad is the support on OVH or Hetzner when opening a ticket?
I'm taking this chance to move my VPSs to an Europe-based provider, and if possible I would prefer to choose based on how good their support is when something happens.
I'm also open to different providers if anyone has a suggestion, preferably based in Europe.
I'm taking this chance to move my VPSs to an Europe-based provider, and if possible I would prefer to choose based on how good their support is when something happens.
I'm also open to different providers if anyone has a suggestion, preferably based in Europe.
As someone who has used both, Hetzner felt a bit more customer-friendly overall.
I've caused two issues that was my fault and Hetzner was willing to help out while OVH told me tough luck.
I accidentally picked the wrong option in OVH Cloud and picked the one month up-front option and quickly destroyed the VPS after, it was barely on for 1 minute but that was enough to demand 60 euros for me. Sure, my fault but it should've been obvious that it wasn't intentional.
I've caused two issues that was my fault and Hetzner was willing to help out while OVH told me tough luck.
I accidentally picked the wrong option in OVH Cloud and picked the one month up-front option and quickly destroyed the VPS after, it was barely on for 1 minute but that was enough to demand 60 euros for me. Sure, my fault but it should've been obvious that it wasn't intentional.
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They have my interest piqued with “Aggressive new cloud egress pricing”
Fingers crossed but so often these don’t pan out
Fingers crossed but so often these don’t pan out
Not sure how the Linode site looked most recently before the rebrand but this new Akamai branded page gives me Alibaba cloud enterprise vibes. https://us.alibabacloud.com/en
I'm a big fan of Jupiter broadcasting and so I tried to use their sponsor Linode once, but they needed my social security number so that was a no-go for me. Hopefully with the rebranding they'll change this requirement.
rebrands are never a good sign.
End of an era, I hosted personal work on Linode for years before moving to GCP.
I forgot Linode was bought by Akamai. Sad since Linode provided quality vps’ when few did.
Looking for a new backup home.
Under no circumstances Digital Ocean, they delete all your servers and data with a valid and chargeable credit card on file.
Looking for a new backup home.
Under no circumstances Digital Ocean, they delete all your servers and data with a valid and chargeable credit card on file.
Yeah. I signed in earlier today and was shocked to see the orange Akamai logo.
Linode was my bread and butter for a while. They had cheap prices and decent support. And just enough bootstrap automation to get the job done (system online and ready for my Ansible or Puppet to mold it).
What's "a bold new approach" about an acquisition coming to conclusion?
Adding new data centers sure ain't new. It might be bold, but only if the company is wary of its future growth.
Adding new data centers sure ain't new. It might be bold, but only if the company is wary of its future growth.
Linode was one of the OG providers back in 2000s.
Akamai is basically buying exposure with this logo change. Linode is resold as managed service quite a lot, including Cloudways which was acquired by DigitalOcean.
Akamai is basically buying exposure with this logo change. Linode is resold as managed service quite a lot, including Cloudways which was acquired by DigitalOcean.
Everyone freaking out over a name change... Akamai has owned Linode for months (if not a year)...
As long as they don't change any of the services, there isn't anything to worry about.
As long as they don't change any of the services, there isn't anything to worry about.
One word: RUN.
Long version: Linode has been a good provider for many years. We farewell them and are sad to see them having the same fate as Heroku after Salesforce acquisition.
Long version: Linode has been a good provider for many years. We farewell them and are sad to see them having the same fate as Heroku after Salesforce acquisition.
[deleted]
Was put off by the pricing page, which used to be no nonsense. It now looks like a cryptic AWS/Azure calculator. Might be time to switch to DO.
Goodbye Linode. They should have at least left the name. We know business is business, but business is business, therefor Goodbye Linode. Goodbye!
Corporate speak takes over a beloved brand, news at 11
The orange logo while everything else is green (linode's design system) looks weird.
Any alternatives that support nested virtualization and has global locations?
Were they acquires or were they always Akamai?
I've been a long time Linode customer and generally unimpressed by them but have let my VPS soldier on because I've been too lazy to pull the plug on it. Everything I do now is in AWS. Might be time to finally give it the axe and close my account.
I've been a long time Linode customer and generally unimpressed by them but have let my VPS soldier on because I've been too lazy to pull the plug on it. Everything I do now is in AWS. Might be time to finally give it the axe and close my account.
Acquired quite recently, in the past year ish.
Acquired in 2022.
That’s a mouthful of a name.
Akamai to me sounds expensive. Not sure if it's a good idea
I wonder if Cloudflare is going to make a move like this.
Waiting for Cloudflare to buy it and restore its name.
Way to kill a brand
Surely the best name would've been Alkaline.
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Goodbye, good old trusted Linode :(
Not sure it was trusted - I think they had root level control plane breaches in their stack?
That was over ten years ago. AFAIK there's never been a pattern of problems.
My memory was there were multiple and at least one badly handled - but it’s been awhile
Yes they did about 8 years ago.
Linode sounds much better
I used to be a happy linode customer. Commercial clients didn't want to use them since they didn't check the compliance checkboxes/certs. Akamai's rebranding claims all of these.
Just tried to signup for a "free account" to check it out. Painful 4 step onboarding: social sign in, phone verification via SMS, billing method verification, mailing address (that didnt like a trailing space in zipcode)
Final screen was a "we'll get back to you" with no other info.
30 minutes later
"Hello,
A recently created account with this email address was canceled by our automated systems. This was due to activity or patterns associated with fraudulent behavior. Additional attempts to sign up may also be rejected.
Linode"
From a noreply@
Only remotely sketch thing about my signup is i was doing it on a train while traveling far from home (no VPN)
Guess they don't want me to reevaluate then
Just tried to signup for a "free account" to check it out. Painful 4 step onboarding: social sign in, phone verification via SMS, billing method verification, mailing address (that didnt like a trailing space in zipcode)
Final screen was a "we'll get back to you" with no other info.
30 minutes later
"Hello,
A recently created account with this email address was canceled by our automated systems. This was due to activity or patterns associated with fraudulent behavior. Additional attempts to sign up may also be rejected.
Linode"
From a noreply@
Only remotely sketch thing about my signup is i was doing it on a train while traveling far from home (no VPN)
Guess they don't want me to reevaluate then
I canceled the signup progress with a bank because of a similar reason. Then I asked for deletion of my data. The customer service agreed and said that it will be deleted. However, they are still sending me newsletters. How should I trust this bank then? Guess I won't reevaluate, too.
World Remit kicked me out and canceled my transaction because I didn’t realize soon enough that Ally Bank now requires me to reply with yes to a text message every time I make a big transaction with my debit card.
World Remit has closed my account but still sends me marketing emails every three days.
Snip
We're sorry to inform you that we've made the decision to cancel your transaction and close your account.
This means that we've cancelled your payment. In the majority of cases, it should appear in your account within 2-3 working days but it can take 7-21 days depending on your bank/card issuer.
There are a number of reasons we may need to close a customer’s account: we may have concerns over security or feel that there's been a breach of our terms and conditions. Sometimes, a customer simply has more than one account to their name.
We’re not legally able to tell you the exact reason for each closure, but we always aim to stay balanced, fair and safe when reviewing our transactions – so if you think we've made the wrong decision, we'd love for you to get in touch.
Please visit our help pages for more information.
Best Regards, WorldRemit Customer Service
World Remit has closed my account but still sends me marketing emails every three days.
Snip
We're sorry to inform you that we've made the decision to cancel your transaction and close your account.
This means that we've cancelled your payment. In the majority of cases, it should appear in your account within 2-3 working days but it can take 7-21 days depending on your bank/card issuer.
There are a number of reasons we may need to close a customer’s account: we may have concerns over security or feel that there's been a breach of our terms and conditions. Sometimes, a customer simply has more than one account to their name.
We’re not legally able to tell you the exact reason for each closure, but we always aim to stay balanced, fair and safe when reviewing our transactions – so if you think we've made the wrong decision, we'd love for you to get in touch.
Please visit our help pages for more information.
Best Regards, WorldRemit Customer Service
In Europe this sounds like a multi-level GDPR violation:
1. not deleting the data when requested
2. using your email for something other than it's intended purpose (to authenticate with the service - not sending newsletters)
I assume you didn't specifically sign up for a newsletter. If I assume wrong, disregard 2.
1. not deleting the data when requested
2. using your email for something other than it's intended purpose (to authenticate with the service - not sending newsletters)
I assume you didn't specifically sign up for a newsletter. If I assume wrong, disregard 2.
[deleted]
I’ve run some medium/large scale side projects with Linode in the past and like many others, I was absolutely blown away by the high quality and professional support I received.
If they can keep that aspect of it together, I’m sure they’ll be fine. I think the name change is a bad choice, but time will tell.
If they can keep that aspect of it together, I’m sure they’ll be fine. I think the name change is a bad choice, but time will tell.
I won't even say RIP because I've already moved on to greener pastures.
I didn't move on because of the acquisition, that never directly bothered me in any imminent way. Instead, I've moved on for price.
Hetzner Cloud is less than half the price for the shared 4 vCPU 8 GB RAM system that I needed.
I didn't move on because of the acquisition, that never directly bothered me in any imminent way. Instead, I've moved on for price.
Hetzner Cloud is less than half the price for the shared 4 vCPU 8 GB RAM system that I needed.
I could even see a viable strategy where they rename the existing Linode but create a new Linode, ala Lightsail just to keep the name. They were running sponsorships using the Linode name on various media sites throughout last year, and I think even this year. The whole point of doing sponsorships is brand awareness. This just deletes it.