Cloud
DigitalOcean
A simple cloud provider for developers: Droplets (VPS), managed databases, Kubernetes and App Platform.
What it is
DigitalOcean appeared in 2011 and became known for simple virtual servers called Droplets, clear pricing and great tutorials.
The catalog is smaller than the big clouds but covers typical needs: managed databases (PostgreSQL, MySQL, Redis), Spaces (S3-compatible storage), DOKS (Kubernetes), Load Balancers and App Platform (a PaaS with deploys from Git).
The interface and pricing are designed so a team without DevOps can launch a product quickly.
Use it when
- A small or medium project that needs a VPS and a few managed services.
- You want clear fixed pricing instead of complex billing.
- You need a PaaS with deploys from GitHub without infrastructure setup (App Platform).
- Learning projects and prototypes.
Avoid it when
- You need a wide set of enterprise services, complex IAM and certifications.
- A very large infrastructure with hundreds of services: AWS scale and ecosystem are better.
- You want the lowest price per resource: Hetzner is usually cheaper.
Key concepts
- Droplet
- A Linux virtual server (VPS) created in about a minute.
- Managed Database
- A database with backups, updates and replication managed by the provider.
- Spaces
- Object storage with an S3-compatible API and a built-in CDN.
- App Platform
- A PaaS: connect a repository and the platform builds and runs the app.
- VPC
- A private network between your Droplets and databases, unreachable from outside.
Example
Interview questions
1. What is a Droplet?
It is a DigitalOcean virtual machine where you have root access. You pick an image, size and region, and the system is ready in a minute.
2. When is App Platform better than a Droplet?
When you do not want to administer a server: the platform builds the code, issues TLS and scales. A Droplet is better when you need full control over the system and non-standard services.
3. How do you secure a Droplet?
Use SSH keys instead of passwords, enable a Cloud Firewall, keep the system updated and keep databases in a VPC with no public access.
Related technologies
- HetznerA German provider with very good-value VPS, dedicated servers and a simple cloud API.
- AWSThe largest cloud platform, with hundreds of services from virtual machines and storage to databases, queues and ML.
- DockerDocker packages an application with its dependencies into a container that runs the same on a laptop, a server and the cloud.
- KubernetesKubernetes is a container orchestration system that deploys, scales and heals applications across a cluster of servers.
- TerraformTerraform is an infrastructure as code tool: you describe cloud resources in configuration and it creates and changes them.
- nginxnginx is a fast web server and reverse proxy that also works as a load balancer and HTTP cache.
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