What Customers Need to Know about the September 15th Announcement
On Sept 15th, Joyent’s public cloud (www.joyentcloud.com) announced an entirely new version of the Joyent Cloud services and underlying software and technology. Key changes and new services to the Joyent Cloud will include:
- Changing Joyent's long-standing linear $125/gb/month billing model to a true utility-based elastic compute model with an hourly pricing option for all three types of Joyent Machine Images (JMIs) including SmartOS, Linux and Windows. This pricing will start at $0.085 / hour per 1 GB machine an slide downwards based on higher usage levels. These rates are competitive with hourly rates at other clouds.
- Availabiilty of hourly utility-based pricing for Zeus appliances.
- Launch of Joyent Cloud public API endpoints. This allows customers to automate machine provisioning and management (autoscaling) via JSON APIs.
- A full analytics bundle, which includes DTrace-based analytics (covering everything happening in the CPU) built into SmartDataCenter, free New Relic application monitoring and optimization (Standard version - costs $45 for AWS customers), and expanded load balancing appliances from Zeus which provides granular network analysis and traffic monitoring.
- Private IP addresses for Linux virtual machines in the Joyent Cloud to improve security for customers.
- Faster boot times for Linux and Windows virtual servers. In the new Joyent Cloud, customers will see server boot times of 15 seconds or less.
- Implementation of KVM for hardware-level virtualization of Linux and Windows machine images.
FAQ
Is Joyent Cloud repricing its cloud services?
Yes. In North America, Joyent Cloud is dropping its entry price for the cloud to $0.085/hour with hourly billing options for SmartMachines. Pricing will slide on a volume scale to below $0.04 per hour for customers using XL or greater size memory configurations. On Linux virtual machines, entry pricing for the cloud will be $0.04 and will slide moderately downwards. Pricing on Windows virtual machines is TBD but will closely resemble Linux pricing. (Click here for complete pricing information.) The planned changes and new features of the Joyent Cloud are available to Joyent customers worldwide.
I’ll get the new pricing on my existing service, right?
The existing Joyent Cloud (my.joyent) has a billing structure that works on a monthly basis and hourly billing capabilites are not enabled. Therefore, we will continue to charge the same monthly prices to customers on the old system. Over time as customers migrate to the new system they can benefit from the new hourly pricing.
I Like It! How Do I Sign Up?
You will need to re-input your payment information, as we have also upgraded our payment systems and customers must create their own new accounts in order for us to start processing payments.
Can I Move My Apps Over?
Existing Joyent Cloud customers can port their applications and everything else running on their JMIs over to the new Joyent Cloud at any point after go-live date. We strongly recommend extensive QA because the new Joyent Cloud is an entirely new system that may break dependencies in your applications. (Click here to read our technical FAQ covering migration to the new Joyent Cloud).
Do I Have to Do Anything Right Now?
No. Nothing. We will continue to operate and support the Unlimited version of the Joyent Cloud. Customers that wish to continue running on the old cloud are welcome to do so. At some point in the near future, all existing customers will be ported over to the new Joyent Cloud. Because you will then be switched over to the new billing system, at that time you will need to re-enter your payment information.
Can I Still Sign Up for a New Account on the Old Joyent Cloud?
No. We think the new Joyent Cloud is so much better that after today’s launch any and all new accounts will deploy on it. Change is good!
Will Joyent provide migration support to Joyent Cloud customers wishing to move to the new version?
Yes. Joyent’s support engineers will provide limited migration support to existing customers. However, the switch should be relatively pain free for customers and will probably not require significant hand-holding or active support.
Is monthly payment still available or is it going away?
Monthly pricing will still be available on the new Joyent Cloud. Hourly pricing is being added to many (but not all) products and services. In fact, we anticipate that customers who want the simple convenience and peace-of-mind of a flat-monthly rate will continue to choose Joyent Cloud specifically for that reason.
What does the per-hour pricing equate to on a monthly basis?
As a rule of thumb, multiply hourly pricing by 720 to get the equivalent monthly billing rate. Note that some products will have higher comparable hourly rates than the monthly equivalent. Hourly pricing is available to offer our customers more choice in how they consume the cloud.
Is Joyent Cloud also repricing the Zeus Load Balancers?
Yes. Previously, Zeus load balancers were similarly priced at a linear model of $250/GB. The new model will reflect a broader product suite with more options for end customers. Zeus will now be offered as four distinct product types, with different performance, feature and throughput capabilities. The new Zeus products will be:
- Zeus Simple Load Balancer - 200 Mbps
- Zeus Load Balancer - 200 Mbps
- Zeus Traffic Manager Standard - 200 Mbps
- Zeus Traffic Manager Standard - 1 Gbps
- Zeus Traffic Manager Enterprise - 200 Mbps
- Zeus Traffic Manager Enterprise - 1 Gbps
Pricing will be announced on September 15th reflecting a per hour rate. Contact sales@joyent.com for information about Zeus pricing, clustering, and any other technical sales questions.
What are the Amazon AWS pricing equivalents?
Not all clouds are created equal - so comparing spot prices is not a valid way to equate hourly rates. In recent benchmarks http://www.joyentcloud.com/resources/benchmarks/ the Joyent Cloud outperformed Amazon EC2 from 3x to 14x on CPU, Disk and Memory benchmarks. Does that mean that Joyent Cloud should charge 3x to 14x more than Amazon? Probably, but the $.085 cents-per-hour rate is equivalent to Amazon's Standard Small Linux price of $0.085/hour for Amazon EAST and $0.095/hour for Amazon WEST.
What operating systems does Joyent Cloud support?
Clouds powered by Joyent's SmartDataCenter can now support any application, any operating system, anywhere. The Joyent Cloud offers our SmartOS (a UNIX environment with operating system virtualization) as well as Linux and Windows support via our KVM-on-SmartOS solution. The currently supported operating system are:
- CentOS
- Debian
- Joyent SmartOS
- Ubuntu
- Windows Server Enterprise
- Windows Server HPC
- Windows Server Standard
