Raspberry Pie
I just acquired a new computing toy with which to play. No, not the Raspberry Pie. That’s another nerd toy. But I have something almost as small…
I just signed up for the smallest available Amazon Web Service (AWS) Cloud web server. It is a free usage account for a year. I have no real idea what I am going to use it for at this moment other than a sandbox server to play with and see what a tiny server can do. It will definitely be running a Linux operating system.
I am not at the moment planning to move this blog or any of my websites to the AWS. There is another up and coming cloud provider called Digital Ocean that is a bit more cost efficient for the very small user like me. Right now The AWS free offer is hard to beat, but it is a onetime offer for a year. My plan is to see how pricing shakes out a year from now.
The service that this blog and all my web sites are using is a shared server with a lot of other users using the same hardware and operating system. I do not have root access to the supporting software. It’s cheap and does a very good (actually outstanding) job when it or one of the shared users (including me) isn’t being hacked, so I have no urgent need to make any system changes.
But I have to be prepared. A cloud based server is almost but not exactly like having my own private server setting on the floor beside me. I have done that in the past. I had a Linux server running 24/7 in my home office for several years as a headless file server. It kept itself updated from the Internet but was not an open server on the Internet.
I could in fact make the new AWS Cloud server be nothing more than a private cloud file storage system. That’s not an entirely practical use these days with all the free cloud storage already being shoved at me from other services. I have 3.5 Gig free on Dropbox and now 10 Gig free on OneDrive and iCloud is throwing 4 Gig more free storage at me. With expandable S3 storage available on AWS I can have almost unlimited backed up storage available, so it is a thought. I have 5 Terabytes available on several drives at home, but subject to loss due to HD failure. (I do keep multiple BU’s, the reason for all that storage.)
But what I now have with this choice is a totally connected chunk of hardware setting in a datacenter somewhere that figuratively looks like the Linux box setting next to me. It will run any other OS as well. Just like I have done (off and on) since Linux, heck personal computing was invented. Only, I don’t have to do any maintenance or upkeep of the hardware. I just get to use it for free or a small fee.
When the free is over is when I will have to decide. Free doesn’t last forever (yet) and it is more costly (2X) than my cheap shared service, but still not a high cost. This is a whole bunch less than if I set up my own hardware for the same service.
That is what cloud computing is all about. What a wonderful nerd toy…
Yes, I have a Raspberry Pie too.