Twisted Hosting and Twisted in the Cloud

Hey everyone, Divmod's been talking to various hosting companies about potential Twisted deals (and maybe even support). I wanted to get a gauge of people's level of interest in the services we've been discussing. We're currently looking at the following options: * Dedicated hosts, with Twisted libs pre-installed on them * Virtual hosts/"slices" with Twisted libs pre-installed on them * Clouds that support uploading and running Twisted apps * Potential support contracts where Divmod engineers provide high-level assistance for paying customers * Becoming a reseller and offering these services directly through Divmod I've been approached privately by a few developers who use Twisted in their projects at home and at work with questions about Twisted hosting. They've been interested to know if 1) Divmod does Twisted hosting, 2) anyone provides "out of the box" support for Twisted, and 3) who we recommend. I know that as the years pass, I have less and less time to manage my own systems responsibly. After 6 years, I'm closing down my colocated boxes. When Twisted makes it to the cloud, I'll close down my virtual hosts, too. I just don't have the time any more. All I need is reliable uptime for my apps (most of them are just sites with dynamic content). How many others on these lists feel that they would benefit from the ease of pre-installed Twisted and/or support for Twisted apps in the cloud? If you do, what kinds of apps (that you are currently running) do you want to be able to run in such environments? Simple web sites? DNS servers? Game servers? Chat applications? Web/data services apps? And lastly, what hosting companies are your favorites? Where would you be happiest, if they supported Twisted? Would you consider switching to a hosting provider that *did* support Twisted? Looking forward to hearing the people speak, d

Duncan McGreggor wrote:
Hey everyone,
Divmod's been talking to various hosting companies about potential Twisted deals (and maybe even support). I wanted to get a gauge of people's level of interest in the services we've been discussing. We're currently looking at the following options: * Dedicated hosts, with Twisted libs pre-installed on them * Virtual hosts/"slices" with Twisted libs pre-installed on them * Clouds that support uploading and running Twisted apps * Potential support contracts where Divmod engineers provide high-level assistance for paying customers * Becoming a reseller and offering these services directly through Divmod
I've been approached privately by a few developers who use Twisted in their projects at home and at work with questions about Twisted hosting. They've been interested to know if 1) Divmod does Twisted hosting, 2) anyone provides "out of the box" support for Twisted, and 3) who we recommend.
I know that as the years pass, I have less and less time to manage my own systems responsibly. After 6 years, I'm closing down my colocated boxes. When Twisted makes it to the cloud, I'll close down my virtual hosts, too. I just don't have the time any more. All I need is reliable uptime for my apps (most of them are just sites with dynamic content).
How many others on these lists feel that they would benefit from the ease of pre-installed Twisted and/or support for Twisted apps in the cloud?
If you do, what kinds of apps (that you are currently running) do you want to be able to run in such environments? Simple web sites? DNS servers? Game servers? Chat applications? Web/data services apps?
We use a stackless python/twisted self-hosted server with MySQL for our online game (in alpha). This isn't particularly satisfactory and would consider a twisted host in the future. I made enquiries with several ISPs here in the UK and none were prepared to offer twisted capable servers. I guess divmod may have more leverage!
And lastly, what hosting companies are your favorites? Where would you be happiest, if they supported Twisted? Would you consider switching to a hosting provider that *did* support Twisted?
Looking forward to hearing the people speak,
d
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On Mon, Jun 30, 2008 at 6:00 AM, Duncan McGreggor < duncan.mcgreggor@gmail.com> wrote:
Hey everyone,
Divmod's been talking to various hosting companies about potential Twisted deals (and maybe even support). I wanted to get a gauge of people's level of interest in the services we've been discussing. We're currently looking at the following options: * Dedicated hosts, with Twisted libs pre-installed on them * Virtual hosts/"slices" with Twisted libs pre-installed on them * Clouds that support uploading and running Twisted apps * Potential support contracts where Divmod engineers provide high-level assistance for paying customers * Becoming a reseller and offering these services directly through Divmod
I've been approached privately by a few developers who use Twisted in their projects at home and at work with questions about Twisted hosting. They've been interested to know if 1) Divmod does Twisted hosting, 2) anyone provides "out of the box" support for Twisted, and 3) who we recommend.
I know that as the years pass, I have less and less time to manage my own systems responsibly. After 6 years, I'm closing down my colocated boxes. When Twisted makes it to the cloud, I'll close down my virtual hosts, too. I just don't have the time any more. All I need is reliable uptime for my apps (most of them are just sites with dynamic content).
How many others on these lists feel that they would benefit from the ease of pre-installed Twisted and/or support for Twisted apps in the cloud?
If you do, what kinds of apps (that you are currently running) do you want to be able to run in such environments? Simple web sites? DNS servers? Game servers? Chat applications? Web/data services apps?
And lastly, what hosting companies are your favorites? Where would you be happiest, if they supported Twisted? Would you consider switching to a hosting provider that *did* support Twisted?
Looking forward to hearing the people speak,
d
I would definitely be interested in pre-installed Twisted servers and Virtual hosts. I currently use Twisted for serving dynamic web content, data capturing and chat services. Webfaction is a great hosting company and they have twisted support, albeit rather limited. I would think that if Divmod where to offer this service, you would find many a happy and eager python developer using your service. G

* Dedicated hosts, with Twisted libs pre-installed on them * Virtual hosts/"slices" with Twisted libs pre-installed on them
Installing Twisted is easy enough ;-) If I manage dedicated host or VPS, then installing twisted is a simple command, be it easy_install, apt-get install, or yum something.... So I do not think there is much to be gained here. Maybe cheap shared hosting with ability to run twisted apps could make some sense, but ... VPS are cheap nowadays. Supported installation may be different story, but it can be uneasy to draw a line where the support really ends.... Just my 2 cents. PS I love VPS-s ;-) -- ---------------------------------------------------------------------- | Marcin Kasperski | If we are to be successful, we must still have | http://mekk.waw.pl | the courage to put our faith in people as | | opposed to a process. (Booch,Martin,Newkirk) ----------------------------------------------------------------------

On Tue, Jul 8, 2008 at 12:02 PM, Marcin Kasperski <Marcin.Kasperski@softax.com.pl> wrote:
* Dedicated hosts, with Twisted libs pre-installed on them * Virtual hosts/"slices" with Twisted libs pre-installed on them
Installing Twisted is easy enough ;-) If I manage dedicated host or VPS, then installing twisted is a simple command, be it easy_install, apt-get install, or yum something....
So I do not think there is much to be gained here. Maybe cheap shared hosting with ability to run twisted apps could make some sense, but ... VPS are cheap nowadays.
There are two things to consider here: 1) We've had conversations with application developers who use Twisted and do a lot of repeated setup. They'd like it if they didn't have to do that every time... but not only the work itself, the mental convenience factor: they don't want to even have to think about it. They'd like to consider it simply part of their OS. I don't know about you, but I like the idea of a Twisted OS ;-) 2) Perception and exposure. This one's a biggie. If hosting providers start offering explicit support for Twisted, we get an arguably significant increase in exposure to potential users. The more people who are aware that Twisted exists, the more that use it. The many and obvious benefits that come as a result of this (including more potential funding for the TSF!) are an excellent motivation.
Supported installation may be different story, but it can be uneasy to draw a line where the support really ends....
That's definitely a dark art ;-) d

Yeah, initial setup is a pain compared to say Pylons. Especially when I know I'm skimping on setting up the twistd service stuff at the beginning when I probably ought to. The thought keeps going through my head "Why don't you write a bastard hybrid of paster for twisted?" Anybody else hear that dark and ominous voice? -Andy Fundinger On Tue, Jul 8, 2008 at 3:49 PM, Duncan McGreggor <duncan.mcgreggor@gmail.com> wrote:
On Tue, Jul 8, 2008 at 12:02 PM, Marcin Kasperski <Marcin.Kasperski@softax.com.pl> wrote:
* Dedicated hosts, with Twisted libs pre-installed on them * Virtual hosts/"slices" with Twisted libs pre-installed on them
Installing Twisted is easy enough ;-) If I manage dedicated host or VPS, then installing twisted is a simple command, be it easy_install, apt-get install, or yum something....
So I do not think there is much to be gained here. Maybe cheap shared hosting with ability to run twisted apps could make some sense, but ... VPS are cheap nowadays.
There are two things to consider here:
1) We've had conversations with application developers who use Twisted and do a lot of repeated setup. They'd like it if they didn't have to do that every time... but not only the work itself, the mental convenience factor: they don't want to even have to think about it. They'd like to consider it simply part of their OS. I don't know about you, but I like the idea of a Twisted OS ;-)
2) Perception and exposure. This one's a biggie. If hosting providers start offering explicit support for Twisted, we get an arguably significant increase in exposure to potential users. The more people who are aware that Twisted exists, the more that use it. The many and obvious benefits that come as a result of this (including more potential funding for the TSF!) are an excellent motivation.
Supported installation may be different story, but it can be uneasy to draw a line where the support really ends....
That's definitely a dark art ;-)
d
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participants (5)
-
Andy Fundinger
-
Duncan McGreggor
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Graeme Glass
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Marcin Kasperski
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Simon Pickles