When I pay Hetzner for an instance, what security infrastructure updates am I missing that is worth $595 a year? When I update the Linux OS and download the security patches, what am I missing compared to the AWS AMI of that very same Linux OS applying the same security patches? If I run a Debian AMI, is there a special supersekrit actually-secure Debian OS that Amazon gets but I don't?
Amazon updates their severs on your behalf. If I had a digital ocean droplet it would be up to me to update the OS and maybe Apache or whatever else would serve my text only site.
I’ve seen someone miss a Wordpress vuln on a Friday and was hacked by Saturday. Not saying all hosting companies react quickly but they at least have teams of people watching stuff. Peace of mind is a valuable thing if you have other areas to focus on like school or work and family.
No, they don't, unless I am very misinformed about how Amazon VM images work. If I fire up a Debian AMI, it'll update itself, or not. (How would Amazon 'update it on my behalf'? What if it needs a reboot?)
The original article is taking about using Amazon CDN not a VM. When you use this hosting type style you are paying someone else to manage the underlying servers. Same with the people who use S3 or Wordpress or whatever namecheap/godaddy provides for static sites. That’s one of the reasons a VM can be $5 vs a CDN at $50 a month.