In production on Linode: ✓ Performance, ✓ Images, ✓ API

Our modern, real-time forum platform PlushForums is in production on Linode, with customers across the Fremont, Dallas, Newark and London datacenters.

Performance ✓

Prior to going live, we benchmarked our app at the major cloud VPS providers. Linode delivered 44% more throughput at the same pricepoint than their closest rival. We're talking about real world full-stack testing here, rather than artificial benchmarks. Core-for-core, Linode give you the sort of win that's hard to pass up. Customers get higher performance and capacity, we get to keep prices down.

Images ✓

It was really the introduction of the Images feature that helped us pull the trigger. It's such a convenient model to build and maintain a set of gold masters, then use them to spin up new Linodes. The images system works perfectly for us.

API ✓

The API is slightly more complex than other providers, but once you understand the nuances of how a Linode is configured, it's quite straightforward. Especially when you realise you can issue your commands and they'll be neatly queued and executed for you. Only our demo server re-imaging task requires any flow control. For convenience, we use the python-linode bindings.

Location ✓

We automatically choose the datacenter based on the customer's location. It's great to have East, West and Central locations, as well as Europe and Asia. I wondered if certain datacenters are more reliable than others. An analysis of the Service Status logs does suggest some patterns, but we decided to ignore them. If you chose a datacenter based on past performance, you may find yourself choosing "counter-cyclically", or simply going round in circles. We've decided to use all DCs in production.

Backups ✓

We primarily use Percona's Xtrabackup and push out nightly backups to S3. But for added redundancy, we needed a supplier with an in-house backup system. After all, we're not using a cloud service, only to have to maintain our own connectivity and hardware for backup purposes. I'd prefer to pay 20% rather than 25% of a Linode's cost, but let's not quibble. The service has been reliable so far and - in contrast to another popular supplier - the backups actually run when promised. The bottom line is the Linode Backup service means we have data backed up in multiple locations using multiple methods. An absolute must, in our view.

You can find the fruits of our work at PlushForums.com.

-Adrian