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Amazon EC2 vs Clever Cloud: What are the differences?
Introduction
In this comparison, we will explore the key differences between Amazon EC2 and Clever Cloud, two popular cloud computing platforms.
Scalability and Infrastructure: Amazon EC2, being part of Amazon Web Services (AWS), offers a highly scalable infrastructure that allows users to quickly scale up or down their computing resources based on demand. Clever Cloud, on the other hand, provides a managed platform that abstracts the infrastructure away, making it easier for developers to focus on their applications rather than managing the underlying infrastructure.
Pricing Model: Amazon EC2 operates on a pay-as-you-go pricing model, where users are billed for the resources they consume on an hourly basis. Clever Cloud offers a pricing model based on instance hours, CPU, memory, and network usage, providing more granular control over costs. Clever Cloud also has a specific pricing tier for startups.
PaaS vs IaaS: Amazon EC2 falls under the Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) category, providing users with virtual machines (EC2 instances) that they can manage and configure based on their requirements. Clever Cloud, on the other hand, is a Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) provider, offering a higher level of abstraction where users can deploy their applications without worrying about managing virtual machines or infrastructure.
Deployment Process: Amazon EC2 requires users to manually provision and configure their virtual machines, which involves tasks such as installing the necessary software, configuring networking, and setting up security. Clever Cloud simplifies the deployment process by providing built-in deployment mechanisms, automatic scalability, and seamless updates without user intervention.
Application Support: Amazon EC2 supports a wide range of applications and programming languages, allowing users to run any software they choose. Clever Cloud focuses primarily on modern web applications and provides specific features and integrations tailored to web development, such as automatic scaling of web dynos, container deployments, and support for various frameworks like Node.js, Python, Java, and Ruby on Rails.
Documentation and Community: Amazon EC2 has a vast and well-established community with extensive documentation, tutorials, and resources available. Clever Cloud, although not as widely known, offers comprehensive documentation and responsive support. Additionally, Clever Cloud provides a dedicated community forum and actively engages with developers through their blog and social media channels.
In Summary, Amazon EC2 and Clever Cloud differ in terms of scalability and infrastructure, pricing models, PaaS vs IaaS approach, deployment processes, supported applications, and the size and engagement of their respective communities.
DigitalOcean was where I began; its USD5/month is extremely competitive and the overall experience as highly user-friendly.
However, their offerings were lacking and integrating with other resources I had on AWS was getting more costly (due to transfer costs on AWS). Eventually I moved the entire project off DO's Droplets and onto AWS's EC2.
One may initially find the cost (w/o free tier) and interface of AWS daunting however with good planning you can achieve highly cost-efficient systems with savings plans, spot instances, etcetera.
Do not dive into AWS head-first! Seriously, don't. Stand back and read pricing documentation thoroughly. You can, not to the fault of AWS, easily go way overbudget. Your first action upon getting your AWS account should be to set up billing alarms for estimated and current bill totals.
We first selected Google Cloud Platform about five years ago, because HIPAA compliance was significantly cheaper and easier on Google compared to AWS. We have stayed with Google Cloud because it provides an excellent command line tool for managing resources, and every resource has a well-designed, well-documented API. SDKs for most of these APIs are available for many popular languages. I have never worked with a cloud platform that's so amenable to automation. Google is also ahead of its competitors in Kubernetes support.
GCE is much more user friendly than EC2, though Amazon has come a very long way since the early days (pre-2010's). This can be seen in how easy it is to edit the storage attached to an instance in GCE: it's under the instance details and is edited inline. In AWS you have to click the instance > click the storage block device (new screen) > click the edit option (new modal) > resize the volume > confirm (new model) then wait a very long time. Google's is nearly instant.
- In both cases, the instance much be shut down.
There also the preference between "user burden-of-security" and automatic security: AWS goes for the former, GCE the latter.
Most bioinformatics shops nowadays are hosting on AWS or Azure, since they have HIPAA tiers and offer enterprise SLA contracts. Meanwhile Heroku hasn't historically supported HIPAA. Rackspace and Google Cloud would be other hosting providers we would consider, but we just don't get requests for them. So, we mostly focus on AWS and Azure support.
Pros of Amazon EC2
- Quick and reliable cloud servers647
- Scalability515
- Easy management393
- Low cost277
- Auto-scaling271
- Market leader89
- Backed by amazon80
- Reliable79
- Free tier67
- Easy management, scalability58
- Flexible13
- Easy to Start10
- Elastic9
- Web-scale9
- Widely used9
- Node.js API7
- Industry Standard5
- Lots of configuration options4
- GPU instances2
- Simpler to understand and learn1
- Extremely simple to use1
- Amazing for individuals1
- All the Open Source CLI tools you could want.1
Pros of Clever Cloud
- Quick & easy setup147
- Amazing support104
- Ultra fast answer to any question87
- Github integration82
- Time saver74
- Fast apps66
- Cool admin interface62
- Postgresql as a service51
- Receive email from the ceo when one of my process crash43
- Easy deployment of playframework33
- Autoscale nodejs processes20
- Easy nodejs deployment19
- Don't need devops in our team16
- Great service15
- Elegant and convenient paas and great support12
- Easy mongodb backup11
- Great customer support11
- Easiest scala / playframework setup i have seen10
- Really great and usefull product with an amazing team9
- Awesome docker support8
- Quick & easy to start to use8
- Git push and it's prodded7
- Up & running with Node in minutes7
- Deploy with docker6
- Easy setup with great customer support6
- Superficial support team5
- Amazing experience - after using heroku, nodejitsu, etc5
- Really safe,quick and responsive! probably best one4
- Customer support is awesome4
- More than efficient scaler3
- Clean interface3
- My devs like it which means I like it! Great support3
- KISS principle3
- Easy setup, CTO and team influencers2
- Easy setup and deploy for play framework and scala2
- Amazing Gif Generator2
- No-brainer, efficient, never gets in the way2
- Great docker support, just via web + git2
- They are a pleasure to work with2
- Awesome support and easy to use..! using laravel (php)2
- Haskell support without worries2
- Easy deployment2
- Top notch support by developer peers2
- No code integration needed2
- Auto redeploy after git push2
- Manage ops parts for me1
- They accept bitcoin1
- Ffmpeg available for nodejs servers1
- Simple to use, brilliant team, super reliable1
- Reported bugs are fixed during the following hour1
- Online postgresql admin gui1
- Too much powered servers and add-ons1
- Fast deployment time1
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Cons of Amazon EC2
- Ui could use a lot of work13
- High learning curve when compared to PaaS6
- Extremely poor CPU performance3
Cons of Clever Cloud
- Super expensive2
- Not a whole lot of flexibility1
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What is Amazon EC2?
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