Rackspace goes “Mosso” for developers

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Stuff found on table at new Rackspace headquarters

Rob La Gesse is totally becoming a raving lunatic about Rackspace’s new “Mosso” hosting cloud.

This is a company the industry could easily underestimate for a long time. After all, it’s in San Antonio, Texas. What kind of technology ever gets invented in San Antonio, right? (Um, ask this guy, he was Vice President on the team that developed the Intel 8008 chip in the building where Rackspace is currently located, which was the first chip along the line that today is in our computers). Anyway, the point is that because Rackspace isn’t in Seattle or Silicon Valley that it is pretty ignored. It’s a huge mistake for its competitors to make.

Anyway, back to Rackspace and Mosso. Anyone else using it? Are your experiences the same as Rob’s?

Where’s Google and Microsoft in this cloud game in comparison?

Published by Robert Scoble

I help entrepreneurs build their technology business' story, help with getting ready for investors, with other launch plans, and many other strategic things that can help your new startup. Call to talk: +1-425-205-1921 (text first).

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65 thoughts on “Rackspace goes “Mosso” for developers”

  3. Who is the Texas Tech Fan?

    Sorry this has nothing to do with the post itself.

    I played basketball at Tech back in the early 90’s.

    Have an amazing day. M

    Like

  4. Who is the Texas Tech Fan?

    Sorry this has nothing to do with the post itself.

    I played basketball at Tech back in the early 90’s.

    Have an amazing day. M

    Like

  9. I thought Mosso look great too until I opened an account only to be told by Mosso customer support that their system could not support a multisite Drupal installation. I was shocked…almost any hosting provider can do this – but not Mosso apparently. Obviously there are some serious limitations in order to achieve what they promise. Looked better on paper. I closed my account.

    Like

  10. I thought Mosso look great too until I opened an account only to be told by Mosso customer support that their system could not support a multisite Drupal installation. I was shocked…almost any hosting provider can do this – but not Mosso apparently. Obviously there are some serious limitations in order to achieve what they promise. Looked better on paper. I closed my account.

    Like

  11. I’ve been using Mosso for a little more than a year now, and Rob is spot on – they do, indeed, rock.

    However, in his observations that you can have your apps talking natively with both Windows and Linux db servers, he’s only scratched the surface of what that platform is capable of. On their service, you can have native windows .NET apps working hand-in-hand with native linux PHP apps (I’ve done some development along those lines)… which is pretty much impossible anywhere else.

    Cool, crazy stuff, indeed. Plus, it’s really grown into a very solid hosting environment.

    Like

  12. I’ve been using Mosso for a little more than a year now, and Rob is spot on – they do, indeed, rock.

    However, in his observations that you can have your apps talking natively with both Windows and Linux db servers, he’s only scratched the surface of what that platform is capable of. On their service, you can have native windows .NET apps working hand-in-hand with native linux PHP apps (I’ve done some development along those lines)… which is pretty much impossible anywhere else.

    Cool, crazy stuff, indeed. Plus, it’s really grown into a very solid hosting environment.

    Like

  13. As a resident of SA, I just wanted to point out NUMEROUS technological advances come from our great city, we just get overlooked due to the fact we do not have a rich artistic culture in the city. (Culture is alive an well down here… but it is of the hispanic nature… ever been to the River Walk?)

    Anyway, Rackspace is a huge company, and is expanding as we speek. Microsoft also has a HUGE datacenter down here, and the NSA took over the old Sony fabrication plant.

    Next time you are in Texas, instead of sticking to Austin, you should swing by SA… you will be pleasently surprised.

    Like

  14. As a resident of SA, I just wanted to point out NUMEROUS technological advances come from our great city, we just get overlooked due to the fact we do not have a rich artistic culture in the city. (Culture is alive an well down here… but it is of the hispanic nature… ever been to the River Walk?)

    Anyway, Rackspace is a huge company, and is expanding as we speek. Microsoft also has a HUGE datacenter down here, and the NSA took over the old Sony fabrication plant.

    Next time you are in Texas, instead of sticking to Austin, you should swing by SA… you will be pleasently surprised.

    Like

  15. Mosso doesn’t do Windows like a windows box… you can’t administer the thing, add accounts, join it to our domain, etc.

    I want somewhere I can put a VMware image and run it… preferably for $20/month or so for low usage. Speed is not an issue… I don’t care if I only get 128 Mb of RAM and 100 Mhz of CPU.

    Like

  16. Mosso doesn’t do Windows like a windows box… you can’t administer the thing, add accounts, join it to our domain, etc.

    I want somewhere I can put a VMware image and run it… preferably for $20/month or so for low usage. Speed is not an issue… I don’t care if I only get 128 Mb of RAM and 100 Mhz of CPU.

    Like

  17. I have a custom developed framework that I develop to cater to my customers.

    My version 3.0 is classic ASP / Windows 2k and my version 4.0 is LAMP.

    I am moving everything to Mosso.com. It is awesome.

    They have had their issues in account setups, and a couple of spinouts. But their customer support makes up for it…they are very responsive and friendly. Right at my finger tips on chat through my account.

    It allows me to have a customer billing / login area automatically. Also my wife and business partner can setup new sites without me.

    I highly recommen Mosso….I am consolidating 5+ server garden to be all mosso.

    Like

  18. I have a custom developed framework that I develop to cater to my customers.

    My version 3.0 is classic ASP / Windows 2k and my version 4.0 is LAMP.

    I am moving everything to Mosso.com. It is awesome.

    They have had their issues in account setups, and a couple of spinouts. But their customer support makes up for it…they are very responsive and friendly. Right at my finger tips on chat through my account.

    It allows me to have a customer billing / login area automatically. Also my wife and business partner can setup new sites without me.

    I highly recommen Mosso….I am consolidating 5+ server garden to be all mosso.

    Like

  19. Used Mosso for a year. It literally crashed and burned every week. It is an awful implementation of a great theory. The reality is that is just does not work.

    Like

  20. Used Mosso for a year. It literally crashed and burned every week. It is an awful implementation of a great theory. The reality is that is just does not work.

    Like

  21. I have both a Rackspace server and a Mosso account. Be careful not to assume that Mosso will be as reliable as Rackspace, it’s not. That said, it’s about 1/6 the cost I would have paid Rackspace for the same set-up.

    Like

  22. I have both a Rackspace server and a Mosso account. Be careful not to assume that Mosso will be as reliable as Rackspace, it’s not. That said, it’s about 1/6 the cost I would have paid Rackspace for the same set-up.

    Like

  23. Thanks for pointing this out, it’s exactly the type of service and pricing I’ve looking for my customers. As far as M$ and Google in this space… I will never support either of them in it. They need to stick to their core businesses and leave some space for the rest of us. Do no evil, right?

    Like

  24. Thanks for pointing this out, it’s exactly the type of service and pricing I’ve looking for my customers. As far as M$ and Google in this space… I will never support either of them in it. They need to stick to their core businesses and leave some space for the rest of us. Do no evil, right?

    Like

  25. Hadn’t heard about Mosso until just now. You know, it seems strange – I’m linked to and quoted in just about every article about Cloud Computing these days because of our use of S3 and EC2… And yet, none of the other cloud computing companies even bother to tell us they have a competing offering.

    Earth to companies: I can’t pay you money if you don’t tell me you exist.

    Just pinged Mosso, sounds interesting. They claim “unlimited scaling” but then mention 100,000 visitors/month. Wonder what they’ll do when I tell them we’re many millions of visitors/month and billions of requests/month. Guess we’ll find out… 🙂

    Like

  26. Hadn’t heard about Mosso until just now. You know, it seems strange – I’m linked to and quoted in just about every article about Cloud Computing these days because of our use of S3 and EC2… And yet, none of the other cloud computing companies even bother to tell us they have a competing offering.

    Earth to companies: I can’t pay you money if you don’t tell me you exist.

    Just pinged Mosso, sounds interesting. They claim “unlimited scaling” but then mention 100,000 visitors/month. Wonder what they’ll do when I tell them we’re many millions of visitors/month and billions of requests/month. Guess we’ll find out… 🙂

    Like

  27. Mosso too expensive? If anyone is interested in sharing the cost of Mosso with me, I’d be willing to set you up with one (or a few if needed) of the client accounts for a good price. Just need a few people to help offset my costs. I’m thinking $10 for me, plus the set fees at Mosso (for example, $5 for 100mb of MS SQL, etc). I can be flexible with price depending on what you’re looking for. I’m willing to set you up with unlimited email boxes and databases since they’re free anyway!

    Please contact me at MossoReseller at gmail.com if you’re interested.

    Like

  28. Mosso too expensive? If anyone is interested in sharing the cost of Mosso with me, I’d be willing to set you up with one (or a few if needed) of the client accounts for a good price. Just need a few people to help offset my costs. I’m thinking $10 for me, plus the set fees at Mosso (for example, $5 for 100mb of MS SQL, etc). I can be flexible with price depending on what you’re looking for. I’m willing to set you up with unlimited email boxes and databases since they’re free anyway!

    Please contact me at MossoReseller at gmail.com if you’re interested.

    Like

  29. Pingback: Daily Find #42 | TechToolBlog

  30. I’m using Mosso for a bunch of sites and it is pretty reliable thus far, though I’m not really doing much on it. I think some have objected to the lack of a command line interface and other missing features.

    However, you really should take a look at Amazon EC2. That’s getting a lot of interesting reviews as it crawls out of beta. Several server hounds I know are using it for testing, standing up say 10 ‘images’ and then pounding them to simulate heavy load, replication, etc and then turning them off (and not getting stuck having to pay for anything more than the time they use).

    http://www.amazon.com/gp/browse.html?node=201590011

    Like

  31. I’m using Mosso for a bunch of sites and it is pretty reliable thus far, though I’m not really doing much on it. I think some have objected to the lack of a command line interface and other missing features.

    However, you really should take a look at Amazon EC2. That’s getting a lot of interesting reviews as it crawls out of beta. Several server hounds I know are using it for testing, standing up say 10 ‘images’ and then pounding them to simulate heavy load, replication, etc and then turning them off (and not getting stuck having to pay for anything more than the time they use).

    http://www.amazon.com/gp/browse.html?node=201590011

    Like

  32. Mosso can be VERY SLOW for .NET applications. We are an ex-customer and had to leave because of this. We’d love to go back, but they have to solve this problem first.

    The problem is that the hosted site goes into a “hibernate” mode when it is not frequently used (the app pool spins down). Waking up out of this “hibernate” mode takes an extremely long time (7000ms+ was not uncommon) – long enough to drive your users away big time.

    If you have a low volume site, then your site is going to “sleep” alot. So basically every user is going to have to wait for the site to “wake up”. For a small site trying to get build a customer base this is death.

    We stuck it for a few months because everything else was great and the price was nice. Ultimately however we had to leave because the performace was frustrating customers.

    Recently Mosso moved to IIS 7.0. I don’t know if this will help there situation or not, but it might be worth checking out. Be warned – you MUST use an external monitoring service with these guys to ensure you’re not killing yourself just to save a few bucks.

    Like

  33. Mosso can be VERY SLOW for .NET applications. We are an ex-customer and had to leave because of this. We’d love to go back, but they have to solve this problem first.

    The problem is that the hosted site goes into a “hibernate” mode when it is not frequently used (the app pool spins down). Waking up out of this “hibernate” mode takes an extremely long time (7000ms+ was not uncommon) – long enough to drive your users away big time.

    If you have a low volume site, then your site is going to “sleep” alot. So basically every user is going to have to wait for the site to “wake up”. For a small site trying to get build a customer base this is death.

    We stuck it for a few months because everything else was great and the price was nice. Ultimately however we had to leave because the performace was frustrating customers.

    Recently Mosso moved to IIS 7.0. I don’t know if this will help there situation or not, but it might be worth checking out. Be warned – you MUST use an external monitoring service with these guys to ensure you’re not killing yourself just to save a few bucks.

    Like

  34. Rackspace isn’t ignored at all. Actually, Rackspace is quite well-known in web hosting and web development circles as one of the top-tier web hosting companies (despite their recent outage issues). The start-up entrepreneurs in the valley may not know about them, but the guys and gals whose job it is to manage their servers do. When I needed to lease a dedicated server for the last company I worked for, they were the first company I called.

    Like

  35. Rackspace isn’t ignored at all. Actually, Rackspace is quite well-known in web hosting and web development circles as one of the top-tier web hosting companies (despite their recent outage issues). The start-up entrepreneurs in the valley may not know about them, but the guys and gals whose job it is to manage their servers do. When I needed to lease a dedicated server for the last company I worked for, they were the first company I called.

    Like

  36. @ #18 – I don’t think anyone is suggesting that Rackspace isn’t known – even in the Valley. Mahalo uses Rackspace, as do a number of startups. MOSSO is something different though. I don;t think it is nearly as well known. I’ve had Rackspace servers for years, but never looked at MOSSO before last week.

    I just didn’t understand what it was.

    Like

  37. @ #18 – I don’t think anyone is suggesting that Rackspace isn’t known – even in the Valley. Mahalo uses Rackspace, as do a number of startups. MOSSO is something different though. I don;t think it is nearly as well known. I’ve had Rackspace servers for years, but never looked at MOSSO before last week.

    I just didn’t understand what it was.

    Like

  38. Rob: oh, Rackspace comes up here and there in conversations, but doesn’t dominate the tech world the way they would if they were where the tech press visited more often like Seattle or Silicon Valley.

    Like

  39. Rob: oh, Rackspace comes up here and there in conversations, but doesn’t dominate the tech world the way they would if they were where the tech press visited more often like Seattle or Silicon Valley.

    Like

  42. From what I’ve heard, Mosso does not do Windows particularly well. They run all their application pools without limits, meaning that one other client can take up all the resources on the box and they won’t know about it until it’s too late.

    Like

  43. From what I’ve heard, Mosso does not do Windows particularly well. They run all their application pools without limits, meaning that one other client can take up all the resources on the box and they won’t know about it until it’s too late.

    Like

  52. we have hosted with mosso for the last 16 months. But if the current plan to switch to compute cycles isn’t corrected soon – we will be leaving. The way they are calculating them is either not accurate or something. It is different by a factor of about 10 from what they claim in their FAQ. I think they have a few more weeks or a lot of people are leaving.

    All of this of course before rackspace’s planned IPO.

    Like

  53. we have hosted with mosso for the last 16 months. But if the current plan to switch to compute cycles isn’t corrected soon – we will be leaving. The way they are calculating them is either not accurate or something. It is different by a factor of about 10 from what they claim in their FAQ. I think they have a few more weeks or a lot of people are leaving.

    All of this of course before rackspace’s planned IPO.

    Like

  54. I know this post was from the spring, but does anyone have any recommendations for something similar to Mosso. I used Mosso almost from the first month they launched until this past summer (left the company). Mosso was so easy to setup as a reseller, I never needed something like Plesk or CPanel (too complex for my needs frankly). Anyone have recommendations or should I just go back to Mosso?

    Like

  55. I know this post was from the spring, but does anyone have any recommendations for something similar to Mosso. I used Mosso almost from the first month they launched until this past summer (left the company). Mosso was so easy to setup as a reseller, I never needed something like Plesk or CPanel (too complex for my needs frankly). Anyone have recommendations or should I just go back to Mosso?

    Like

  56. This is a great thread. I’ve used mosso for a while but was hoping to load an excel file online that I could then edit (as well as others in my company)

    Was curious if anyone has head of http://www.dataweb.com

    They seem to offer that sort of platform feasibility but was wondering what you people though- if anyone has experience with them?

    Thanks!

    Like

  57. This is a great thread. I’ve used mosso for a while but was hoping to load an excel file online that I could then edit (as well as others in my company)

    Was curious if anyone has head of http://www.dataweb.com

    They seem to offer that sort of platform feasibility but was wondering what you people though- if anyone has experience with them?

    Thanks!

    Like

  62. As per many forum and reviews post, I would have to agree that Mosso is able to run both Linux and windows programming, however it is not considerably recommended for a windows platform.

    We will soon be testing Mosso’s platform in a Linux environment on http://www.busaking.com

    This is a high graphics, large file upload site and should gain about 5k – 6k customers a month. If anyone want’s to take a look at how a mid-size site does under speed tests…you are welcome to it.

    Like

  63. As per many forum and reviews post, I would have to agree that Mosso is able to run both Linux and windows programming, however it is not considerably recommended for a windows platform.

    We will soon be testing Mosso’s platform in a Linux environment on http://www.busaking.com

    This is a high graphics, large file upload site and should gain about 5k – 6k customers a month. If anyone want’s to take a look at how a mid-size site does under speed tests…you are welcome to it.

    Like

  64. We are thinking about leaving Mosso now. Our .NET application is in Alpha testing; low traffic. So every time we visit the site it has to “wake up”. It is on IIS7 and their new cluster with the rewrite module. We tried a keep alive cron job, but it only hits a few of the Mosso nodes. They told us today there is no way to keep a .NET application active unless you have constant real traffic that is hitting all of the nodes. The problem is, no-one has constant traffic from the start. This is a major issue with Mosso. They are pretty much unusable for .NET.

    Like

  65. We are thinking about leaving Mosso now. Our .NET application is in Alpha testing; low traffic. So every time we visit the site it has to “wake up”. It is on IIS7 and their new cluster with the rewrite module. We tried a keep alive cron job, but it only hits a few of the Mosso nodes. They told us today there is no way to keep a .NET application active unless you have constant real traffic that is hitting all of the nodes. The problem is, no-one has constant traffic from the start. This is a major issue with Mosso. They are pretty much unusable for .NET.

    Like

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