How Slicehost Got It Right

I've been an Slicehost customer for years, and I vividly recall that the sign up process went something like this:

1. Sign up in the website and enter billing information (1 minute)
2. Create a simple VM with Fedora (5 minutes)
3. SSH into the machine and start using it (<1 minute)

So basically within 7 minutes of entering my credit card information I was logged onto my shiny new VM and ready to rock. This level of simplicity is the way it should be.

I came to their site brandishing my credit card and I knew exactly what I wanted; anything that got in the way or slowed me down was just an annoyance or inconvenience.

The Rackspace Takeover

Rackspace nommed up Slicehost and have begun assimilating Slicehost's biological and technological distinctiveness into their own.

Existing Slicehost customers are going to be migrated over to become Rackspace customers over the next 3 to 12 months. Among some of the more interesting bits to come out of the recent Q&A session is that moving to Rackspace will bring Native IPv6 support to all customers.

Ever the impatient I wanted to see what moving to Rackspace will be like...

The Rackspace Experience

So, I went to their site, picked Cloud Hosting and whacked Sign-Up.

1. Completed the Name/Address part of the form, left Company and VAT Number blank. WRONG! Apparently they didn't like that, but continued when I put "Personal" as my Company name.

2. Created a username/password and entered my billing information, fine no problem.

3. Confirmed the details and apparently signed up...

Yet it was not to be, I was seemingly 'stuck' on the last page of the web form. Oh wait email just arrived, ok email gives me a direct link to the Control Panel and I log in.

Only to be greeted by a message that my account has not yet been verified and to expect a phone call within 1 hour.

The WTF Moment

It is around this point that my WTF-O-meter is starting to register that something is horribly wrong.

Apparently if my query is urgent I can call them, rather than wait to be called. Ok, so I call ... holding music ... "please wait to be connected to a 'Racker'" ... ring ring ... and I am greeted by a polite chap with an American accent.

He confirms my details and then puts me through to their New Customer line where I am greeted by another American chap who repeatedly asks if I am a business and what I plan to do with my VM's (remember I just signed up to see what I am in-for with the Slicehost migration).

After placating their customer research / marketing needs I am freed and my account is activated.

The Disappointing Control Panel

I re-login to the Control Panel and everything appears to have been activated etc. First things first ... how about a VM ... I click onto the Cloud Server tab and click my distro of choice (Fedora 14) up pops a Dialog where I give it a name and choose a size (RAM/Disk) and I click Save.

Few seconds later I can see it has created a VM already, assigned to a fixed data centre 'LON3' and nowhere is there anything about IPv6 addressing. I poked around the settings etc. but no ... really ... you can rename it ... you can resize it ... you can even reboot it ... but that's about it.

My Verdict

Rackspace, I think my Cat could provision a better Cloud Hosting Service while asleep upside-down on the stairs.

It's sad knowing that someone who got it right (Slicehost) has been consumed by the BORG that is Rackspace. Even sadder knowing that all the innovation the Slicehost guys have done to make their service great will be entirely lost on Rackspace's way of working.

What Rackspace Should Fix

If I were Rackspace I would sort the following stuff out pronto:

• I came to you because I wanted to create a VM, anything that gets in my way is a hassle.

• The whole phone call sign-up thing might work great when you are dealing with SMB's but for the love of Penguins please make it optional.

• So you managed to sign-up and get activated? I'd like to know what fricking datacentre my instance is going to pop up in. Do I have to create a separate account in the USA to get into a different datacentre?

• IPv6 ... I mean ... It's not rocket science ... either its ready, or its not ... you say 'Available from the end of the month' and its still not (at least in the data centre where you stuck me).

The Search for Alternatives

Overall it's not looking good, I was mildly optimistic about waiting for the Slicehost to Rackspace migration — not any more. Sadly another good service bites the dust after being bought out by the fatter incumbent.

On the plus side, it has forced me to look elsewhere and for starters Linode are looking the best option and already have Native IPv6 connectivity for all hosts.