I'm sure they spent a lot of time thinking about this, but why not just call it something "Linode by Akamai" or "Akamai Linode"? Neither "Akamai’s cloud computing services" or "Akamai Connected Cloud" sound like viable names. Is the goal just to get people to say "I use Akamai"?<p>I could even see a viable strategy where they rename the existing Linode but create a new Linode, ala Lightsail just to keep the name. They were running sponsorships using the Linode name on various media sites throughout last year, and I think even this year. The whole point of doing sponsorships is brand awareness. This just deletes it.
Sad day for Linode. Great standalone niche hosting platform. I get that these things happen. I was part of a Google acquisition that eventually got shutdown/rebranded. From an acquirer standpoint it makes sense. For existing users they probably now feel deflated as the whole reason they went to Linode was to avoid incumbents.
Discord originally hosted on Linode in 2015. Unfortunately we had to move off, as we knew Linode would be the limiting factor in being able to continue to grow. So we chose to go with GCP.<p>Unfortunately, I suspect this is something that happens quite often for Linode, which is that, their most successful clients will eventually graduate off of them.<p>This may reposition their business in such a way that their most successful clients stay with them.
I’m curious to the reasoning behind a decision like this.<p>Part of what Akamai bought was the Linode brand name. Anecdotally as a user Linode’s brand seems to have a fair bit of value and positive reputation. Havent they just written off a non-trivial amount of value from what they just acquired?<p>Or is it as simple as they really want brand consistency?
RIP Linode. It was the 2nd (after Slicehost) "cloud service" I was introduced to back then in 2009 I believe, when my, back then CTO, insisted that "cloud" is the way to go and some job skills (sysadmin) will eventually fade and turn irrelevant. 3 years later same CTO complained that I made other teams within that startup look bad by using Hetzner and OVH duo instead of Amazon's then still relatively new AWS - bills were telling the story way better than I could!
As a customer it makes me nervous Akamai have decided to ignore Linode's great brand name and good will. If they ignore one of Linode's best assets that took a lot of hard work to create then I fear future decision making. I think I'll get ready to move should Akamai continue with the same kind of decision making.
Fascinating that Akamai apparently thinks that the brand equity of "Linode" is less than whatever people will impute to some new "Akamai cloud computing" among their target customer base. Which is...puzzling!<p>I can only assume this is an attempt at targeting enterprise; tons of engineers know Linode (and given how long they've been around, there's probably plenty of enterprise CTOs around now with fond memories of the project they spun up in college on Linode), but it wouldn't be my first (or fifth) thought for a large cloud deployment.<p>I guess Akamai wants to change that, and is happy to just toss the old brand in the dumpster to do it.<p>I've used Linode a few times over the years for various small projects, and never had anything but positive experiences. I'm not sure I would have had cause to turn to them again, but...there's basically zero chance of me turning to Akamai cloud computing, so for me, I think this is the end of the road with them.
I’ve had an account and small mail server on Linode for almost 19 years, and it has done all I need.<p>* run reliably
* static IP that other mail servers trust
* staff who are willing to reach out to other larger mail providers if a linode ip range it is in got blocked.
Doesn't surprise me, though. I talked to some E-staff a while ago and they said the CEO wanted a data lake. I asked what for, and they said he didn't know yet. They just wanted it.<p>So not surprising they'd throw away so much brand recognition.
I hope they will keep what is good about Linode.<p>Adding new good things is a bonus.<p>I can understand changing the name. Among other reasons, I wouldn't want to be doing B2B sales and trying to explain to the customer what "Linode" is.<p>The name "Linode" has an old-school charm, from a particular period and demographic, but I'd guess that's not how they're making most of their money nowadays.<p>And, hey, ACC (Akamai Connected Cloud) comes alphabetically before AWS, Azure, and GCP.
At least been with Linode for the last 15 years, I'm used to the brand, you change it, I may just leave.<p>Linode was solid for me over the years, I noticed DigitalOcean might be a big threat to it early on, now might be the time for me to finally migrate there.
Linode was my first VPS provider in 2004 or 2005, it had a special part in my heart.<p>I'm a bit sad Linode is gone, but for what it's worth, thanks Linode.
I wonder how employees feel about that change and how they feel since the acquisition. A key determinant in whether I stay with Akamai or not is if I know there are competent developers behind the cloud that care and would use the service. Other determinants: simplicity, performance in the UI and pricing that makes sense for an individual developer.<p>It feels like Linode was small enough to care, which was a key differentiator with other cloud offerings. Now, that advantage is gone with a major name like Akamai. On the other hand, it might be easier to convince people to consider Linode's platform as an alternative to other more expensive clouds.
What’s a good alternative for Linode these days? I just want a vps where I can install Debian, be root, and have a web and email server. A 4gb Linode has been enough for my needs for years.
Akamai Node would have been a better name. Still retains the essence of the old name, and still indicates a small cheap VPS offering. "Connected Cloud" could mean anything.
It is a reasonable business decision if we think of it as combining the enterprise branding of Akamai and the solid product behind Linode.<p>Instead of throwing away the brand, I just wish they retained the Linode name as a sub brand targeted at developers something like OVH and kimsufi (if that even makes sense).<p>To get an idea of what their intentions and goals behind this move are, we'll have to wait and see how the existing Linode customers will be treated w.r.t the product pricing & direction.
Personal experience is that akamai is <i>very</i> expensive, has poor api integration, and limited set of real world features (especially regarding certificate management, for example), poor response times when "expert" is needed, and experts needed often due to lack of api...
Didn't know about this acquisition, seems like a bad outcome.
YMMV, of course.
We used linode since 2007, and the experience was good. Would be sad for it to end up being swallowed by some huge soulless corporation which is acutely aware of preserving their own brand.
RIP Linode.<p>First VPS provider I used. Although I haven't used it in a while, it's still sad to see the brand go away and be replaced with such a bland corporate one.
Well, that's it for me. I've been nervous since the acquisition, but that post has all the telltale signs of imminent brand doom. I've had a few small services running on Linode for years I'll be pulling the plug on/moving to other providers.
I’ve been a Linode customer for well over a decade and am sad to see them go. They always felt like a part of the older hacker culture that hadn’t been destroyed by corporations yet, and we all know where this is leading. Guess it’s time to explore alternatives.
> What won’t change is the price-performance, portability, and award-winning support that developers love.<p>At least they put "love" and "developers" in the same sentence. I think they still love me.<p>(<a href="https://www.linode.com/blog/linode/a-bold-new-approach-to-the-cloud/" rel="nofollow">https://www.linode.com/blog/linode/a-bold-new-approach-to-th...</a>)
Hmm seems to be missing an obvious improvement: A more cost-sensitive version of akamai's CDN (which has a pricetag of "become fortune 500 and we'll be in touch") available to linode customers. Or does linode already have a CDN? I just want something like cloudflare where my image and video files are distributed to the edge network and post-processed into a variety of sizes.
I completely ignored Linode after they were hacked[1] ~10 years ago. I had one of their $5 VPS for many years, that was running an old blog of mine, which I migrated to another VPS provider.<p>[1]: <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5552756" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5552756</a>
I'm hoping this means they will finally build a cloud product that can compete, but if the same management is there, probably not. What a sad product lineup and UX. DO, Hetzner, etc have much better products. But nerds love pushing buttons and looking at stats, so somehow Linode's limited functionality and constant maintenance-induced downtime don't seem to faze them. Brands are so weird.<p>If they wanted to, they could automate OpenStack clusters, give people admin over a fully featured open source private cloud, and charge per hour. A few providers (mostly in Europe) have done it and it's an amazing experience. But I guess nobody thinks there's a market for an AWS/GCP/Azure competitor, and charging for a month at a time is more stable money.
Ask HN: I was just about to sign up to their Managed service offering (basically they monitor the VPS's and if a monitored URL goes down they do initial trouble shooting for the basics to bring things back online before they contact you). I've rarely seen this offered elsewhere. Any other hosting co's HN knows about that does this (and had good experiences with?) ? Vultr doesn't from what I can see. I prefer my servers a little less than crispy so OVH isn't on the menu.<p>[ I had my first network interruption on my VPS in years this weekend... so just a touch nervous and looking at other options ]
Missed opportunity. Why not use <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lanikai_Beach" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lanikai_Beach</a>
or even <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laniakea" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laniakea</a> ? Like Linode and Akamai, nice like the beach, vast like the supercluster, easy like Ikea?
Good work Linode team, a worthy sparring partner for many years. I must say, although it makes sense, my nostalgic nerd heart is sad to see the brand die.
Popped up yesterday:<p><a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34786762" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34786762</a>
It is difficult to comprehend the rationale behind the decision to abandon a longstanding and well-known brand name that has endured for over two decades, and replace it with the rather awkward and unappealing moniker of "Connected Cloud."<p>One might reasonably question the wisdom of such a decision and its potential impact on the perception of the brand by consumers.
Anyone here can comment on how good or bad is the support on OVH or Hetzner when opening a ticket?<p>I'm taking this chance to move my VPSs to an Europe-based provider, and if possible I would prefer to choose based on how good their support is when something happens.<p>I'm also open to different providers if anyone has a suggestion, preferably based in Europe.
Not sure how the Linode site looked most recently before the rebrand but this new Akamai branded page gives me Alibaba cloud enterprise vibes. <a href="https://us.alibabacloud.com/en" rel="nofollow">https://us.alibabacloud.com/en</a>
I'm a big fan of Jupiter broadcasting and so I tried to use their sponsor Linode once, but they needed my social security number so that was a no-go for me. Hopefully with the rebranding they'll change this requirement.
I forgot Linode was bought by Akamai. Sad since Linode provided quality vps’ when few did.<p>Looking for a new backup home.<p>Under no circumstances Digital Ocean, they delete all your servers and data with a valid and chargeable credit card on file.
Linode was my bread and butter for a while. They had cheap prices and decent support. And just enough bootstrap automation to get the job done (system online and ready for my Ansible or Puppet to mold it).
What's "a bold new approach" about an acquisition coming to conclusion?<p>Adding new data centers sure ain't new. It might be bold, but only if the company is wary of its future growth.
Linode was one of the OG providers back in 2000s.<p>Akamai is basically buying exposure with this logo change. Linode is resold as managed service quite a lot, including Cloudways which was acquired by DigitalOcean.
Everyone freaking out over a name change... Akamai has owned Linode for months (if not a year)...<p>As long as they don't change any of the services, there isn't anything to worry about.
One word: RUN.<p>Long version:
Linode has been a good provider for many years. We farewell them and are sad to see them having the same fate as Heroku after Salesforce acquisition.
Were they acquires or were they always Akamai?<p>I've been a long time Linode customer and generally unimpressed by them but have let my VPS soldier on because I've been too lazy to pull the plug on it. Everything I do now is in AWS. Might be time to finally give it the axe and close my account.
I used to be a happy linode customer. Commercial clients didn't want to use them since they didn't check the compliance checkboxes/certs. Akamai's rebranding claims all of these.<p>Just tried to signup for a "free account" to check it out. Painful 4 step onboarding: social sign in, phone verification via SMS, billing method verification, mailing address (that didnt like a trailing space in zipcode)<p>Final screen was a "we'll get back to you" with no other info.<p>30 minutes later<p>"Hello,<p>A recently created account with this email address was canceled by our automated systems. This was due to activity or patterns associated with fraudulent behavior. Additional attempts to sign up may also be rejected.<p>Linode"<p>From a noreply@<p>Only remotely sketch thing about my signup is i was doing it on a train while traveling far from home (no VPN)<p>Guess they don't want me to reevaluate then
I’ve run some medium/large scale side projects with Linode in the past and like many others, I was absolutely blown away by the high quality and professional support I received.<p>If they can keep that aspect of it together, I’m sure they’ll be fine. I think the name change is a bad choice, but time will tell.
I won't even say RIP because I've already moved on to greener pastures.<p>I didn't move on because of the acquisition, that never directly bothered me in any imminent way. Instead, I've moved on for price.<p>Hetzner Cloud is less than half the price for the shared 4 vCPU 8 GB RAM system that I needed.