Overview

Google Compute Engine

Stacks12.4K

Followers9.2K

Votes423

Amazon LightSail

Stacks189

Followers394

Votes9

Amazon LightSail vs Google Compute Engine: What are the differences?

Introduction

In this article, we will discuss the key differences between Amazon LightSail and Google Compute Engine, two popular cloud computing services. Both platforms offer a range of features and capabilities, but there are distinct differences that can influence the choice for specific use cases.

Pricing Model: Amazon LightSail follows a simplified pricing model where you pay a fixed monthly fee based on the instance size, whereas Google Compute Engine offers flexible pricing options with per-second billing and sustained-use discounts. This makes LightSail more suitable for stable workloads with predictable resource requirements, while Compute Engine can be more cost-effective for dynamic and variable workloads.
Instance Types: LightSail provides a limited selection of pre-configured instance types with fixed compute, memory, and storage specifications. On the other hand, Compute Engine offers a wider range of customizable instance types, allowing users to select and fine-tune the exact resources required for their workloads. This flexibility makes Compute Engine more suitable for complex or resource-intensive applications.
Ecosystem Integration: Both LightSail and Compute Engine seamlessly integrate with the respective cloud provider's ecosystem. However, LightSail is tightly coupled with the Amazon Web Services (AWS) ecosystem, offering easy integration with services like Amazon RDS and Amazon S3. In contrast, Compute Engine is part of the broader Google Cloud Platform (GCP), providing access to a wider range of services like BigQuery, Cloud Storage, and Cloud Spanner. The choice between the two will depend on the specific requirements and familiarity with the respective ecosystems.
Scaling and Load Balancing: LightSail offers a simple scaling approach, allowing users to manually upgrade or downgrade instances within the selected instance family. Compute Engine, on the other hand, provides more sophisticated scaling capabilities, including managed instance groups and automatic load balancing. This makes Compute Engine more suitable for applications that require dynamic scaling and high availability.
Managed Services: With its emphasis on simplicity, LightSail offers managed services like managed databases (RDS) and object storage (S3) tailored for less complex setups. Compute Engine, being part of the broader Google Cloud Platform, provides a wider array of managed services, including AI and machine learning capabilities through services like Cloud Machine Learning Engine and BigQuery ML. The choice between the two will depend on the specific requirements and need for advanced managed services.
Global Infrastructure: While both LightSail and Compute Engine have a global presence, Compute Engine offers a wider network of data centers, allowing for better geographical coverage. This can be important for applications that require low latency and high availability across multiple regions. LightSail, on the other hand, may have a more concentrated presence in certain regions. The choice will depend on the specific geographic requirements of the workload.

In summary, Amazon LightSail and Google Compute Engine have distinct differences in pricing, instance types, ecosystem integration, scaling and load balancing, managed services, and global infrastructure. The choice between the two will depend on factors such as cost predictability, customization needs, ecosystem preferences, scalability requirements, need for advanced managed services, and geographic considerations.

Advice on Google Compute Engine, Amazon LightSail

Tejas

Founder, CEO at Thalia Technologies

Apr 9, 2021

Decided

Our company builds micro saas applications. Based on the application we decide whether to deploy it over one of our shared servers or on a dedicated server.

We decided to Lightsail over EC2.

Lightsail is a lightweight, simplified product offering that has a dramatically simplified console. The instances run in a special VPC, but this aspect is also provisioned automatically, and invisible in the console.
Lightsail supports optionally peering this hidden VPC with your default VPC in the same AWS region, allowing Lightsail instances to access services like EC2 and RDS in the default VPC within the same AWS account.
Bandwidth is unlimited, but of course free bandwidth is not -- however, Lightsail instances do include a significant monthly bandwidth allowance before any bandwidth-related charges apply.
It has predictable pricing with no surprises at the end.
The flexibility of EC2 leads inevitably to complexity. Whereas for Lighsail there is virtually no learning curve, here. You don't even technically need to know how to use SSH with a private key -- the Lightsail console even has a built-in SSH client -- but there is no requirement that you use it. You can access these instances normally, with a standard SSH client.

45.5k views45.5k

Comments

Stephen

Artificial Intelligence Fellow

Feb 4, 2020

Decided

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.

203k views203k

Comments

Detailed Comparison

Google Compute Engine	Amazon LightSail
Google Compute Engine is a service that provides virtual machines that run on Google infrastructure. Google Compute Engine offers scale, performance, and value that allows you to easily launch large compute clusters on Google's infrastructure. There are no upfront investments and you can run up to thousands of virtual CPUs on a system that has been designed from the ground up to be fast, and to offer strong consistency of performance.	Everything you need to jumpstart your project on AWS—compute, storage, and networking—for a low, predictable price. Launch a virtual private server with just a few clicks.
High-performance virtual machines- Compute Engine’s Linux VMs are consistently performant, scalable, highly secure and reliable. Supported distros include Debian and CentOS. You can choose from micro-VMs to large instances.;Powered by Google’s global network- Create large compute clusters that benefit from strong and consistent cross-machine bandwidth. Connect to machines in other data centers and to other Google services using Google’s private global fiber network.;(Really) Pay for what you use- Google bills in minute-level increments (with a 10-minute minimum charge), so you don’t pay for unused computing time.;Load balancing- Native load-balancing technology helps you spread incoming network traffic across a pool of instances, so you can achieve maximum performance, throughput and availability at low cost.;Fast and easy provisioning- Quickly deploy large clusters of virtual machines with intuitive tools including a RESTful API, command-line interface and web-based Console. You can also use tools such as RightScale and Scalr to automatically manage your deployment.;Compliance and security- All data written to disk in Compute Engine is encrypted at rest using the AES-128-CBC algorithm. Compute Engine has completed ISO 27001, SSAE-16, SOC 1, SOC 2, and SOC 3 certifications, demonstrating our commitment to information security.	-
Statistics
Stacks 12.4K	Stacks 189
Followers 9.2K	Followers 394
Votes 423	Votes 9
Pros & Cons
Pros 87 Backed by google 79 Easy to scale 75 High-performance virtual machines 57 Performance 52 Fast and easy provisioning	Pros 4 Low cost 4 Simple Deployment 1 Simple pricing scheme
Integrations
RightScale Qubole Scalr Boundary Red Hat Codeready Workspaces Kinvey New Relic Twilio SendGrid Zencoder	No integrations available

What are some alternatives to Google Compute Engine, Amazon LightSail?

DigitalOcean

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Gandi

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