Linode: A smarter alternative to mega cloud storage options

Linode is offering free Simple Storage Service (S3) - compatible object storage to new and existing customers from March 1, 2020 through May 31, 2020.

The offering would prove particularly beneficial for Indian startups and SMEs – the backbone of the country’s economy -- that are moving towards digitalisation and adopting cloud technology to make operations more mobile and accessible. Research shows that nearly 65% SMEs consider high cost as the major barrier in cloud adoption.

“Our mission at Linode is to make cloud computing simple, affordable, and accessible to all. Linode’s object storage is a great example of providing S3-compatible, high-performance storage without the exorbitant transfer fees, complexity and vendor lock-in that currently plague other hyperscale providers,” said Ashwin Kumar, Director, Data Centre and Cloud Operations, Linode India.

Hidden costs in traditional S3-compatible options; a major impediment to growth

Traditional S3-compatible options seem affordable on the surface, but hide high transfer fees, which can balloon cloud infrastructure bills. Linode’s object storage solution provides Indian SMEs, startups and application developers a smarter and more cost effective alternative to control data, besides including generous amounts of free transfer, resulting in savings of 900% or more over hyperscale providers like AWS and Google.

Linode’s Object Storage: A preferred option for small and medium sized businesses

Object storage is a versatile, cost-effective method for storing static, unstructured data in the cloud. Use cases of object storage are diverse, ranging from simple multimedia storage to housing large datasets for advanced applications such as machine learning. However, high transfer costs have been an impediment to wider adoption of object storage, especially among small and medium sized businesses for which managing higher amounts of unstructured data has become critical. Linode Object Storage supports 250GB to 50TB of data and up to 50 million objects per cluster. Pricing starts at USD $5/mo for 250GB of storage and 1TB of outbound transfer (after which storage and transfer rates are USD $0.02/GB), and always-free unlimited inbound transfers.

Existing customers can create or maintain Linode Object Storage buckets in their Cloud Manager console or via the Linode API or CLI. New customers will receive object storage for free when they sign up. Like other products Linode released in the past, customer demand will help the company accelerate the roll out of object storage to its other data centers around the world.

Linode’s S3-compatible object storage product, which is a part of the growing commoditization of cloud computing services, is levelling the playing field for alternative cloud providers like Linode, and giving developers and small- and medium-size enterprises infrastructure choice beyond the hyperscale cloud providers.

“We use Linode Object Storage to deliver global elevation data to our customers at cents on the dollar compared to alternatives,” said Luke Seelenbinder, founder, Stadia Maps. “When looking for a way to serve almost 2TB of raster elevation tiles reliably, efficiently, and globally, we have found it to be the perfect balance of cost and efficiency. Your optimized biking routes can thank Linode for making this possible.”