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by harpratap 2154 days ago
Am I missing something? Isn't a $3 VM referring to a VM service in a cloud somewhere? If you try to do the same thing without cloud you'll have to end up renting space in a datacenter, install your own servers, connect to an ISP, power bills, etc etc. Cloud definitely seems cheaper in comparison
1 comments
progval 2154 days ago
GP and you aren't using the same definition of cloud. By cloud, they mean infrastuctures like AWS/GCP/Azure, not simple VM hosting (called VPS outside "clouds", and compute nodes in "clouds")
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harpratap 2153 days ago
What's the definition of "cloud" then which excludes VPS from the umbrella of services offered in cloud? Not really sure how a VPS is any different from a Google Compute Engine
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XCSme 2153 days ago
I think the main difference is the pricing structure. Usually "cloud" refers to the auto-scaling servers with the pay-as-you go pricing, while VPSs are usually manually instantiated and have a fixed monthly cost. Also, sometimes with VPSs you get more control over the server's settings than with "cloud" services.

So "cloud" is like renting a dynamically changing number of VPSs each month and which are usually more costly if your consumption is not spiky (eg. when a cheap VPS rented 24/7 is enough).

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