[TCC-Mark]

Hi VPS.net (and all),

I have a suggestion - is there any chance of making cheaper storage an option on VPSs? Specifically, there are some applications (e.g. hosting videos - though I know YouTube is an option here) for which I would be happy to forgo redundant SAN (expensive) storage and settle for a simple chunk of space on a networked SATA hard drive. I'd be happy to mount it using something like NFS as a secondary drive.

Could there be any plans to provide something like this? Or does anyone know of any way to achieve this that doesn't cost 30p per GB? A standard SATA drive is around 3p per GB. Even with a markup, it would be cheaper

Don't get me wrong, there's a time and a place for redundant SANs, but, y'know, horses for courses and all that!

Cheers,

Mark.

[vps247]

I've asked several months ago. They won't do it.

[TCC-Mark]

That's a shame - I think it would be a nice little extra revenue stream for VPS.net.

For what I need, sheer size of storage is the name of the game, and I simply can't justify spending the money on SAN space at VPS.net. It will result in me finding another host who can host the content (keeping the site itself with VPS.net), whereas if it was a VPS service then I'd be happy to host all that content here...

So if it were something they could offer, they'd get extra income from me and I'd get hosting within the VPS.net network. Everyone wins!

Any thoughts, VPS.net guys?

This post has been edited by TCC-Mark: 24 November 2011 - 01:04 PM

[Terry Myers]

Our storage nodes are about the most affordable option you can get. They're already only $10 a month for 25GB.

[TCC-Mark]

Hi Terry,

At $10 for 25GB, that's 40c per GB, or 26p per GB in UK monies, per month.

A 3TB (around 2795GB of usable space) hard drive is £115 at current, that's 4p per GB (one off). I realise it's unrealistic to think that I could get online storage at that price, but it is a useful barometer.

I have had a little look round and there are people who offer cheaper storage - closer to around 5p per GB, per month... it may even be possible to combine this with VPS.net hosting in some way (hotlinking, NFS, etc.) but with anything that pulls files to VPS.net that obviously eats away at usage allowances.

NOW... I realise that VPS.net storage is speedy, redundant etc. etc. I'm not suggesting that VPS.net should lower their prices. I'm not even suggesting that VPS.net should allow cloud servers to be created without a primary drive hosted on the speedy, redundant SANs.

What I was wondering, was whether it might be a pretty cool idea for VPS.net to also offer cheaper, slower, non-redundant storage that us folk could add as secondary drives? On the technology side, perhaps VPS.net could just use cheap SATA drives in a standard network enclosure, rather than one of the expensive SAN setups? That way you could still make a decent profit off the "secondary storage nodes" but they would be cheaper to the end user.

I'm sure I don't understand all of the intricacies of the setup you guys have their, but it was just food for thought really, and I was wondering if it is something that VPS.net might consider at some point?

Mark.