Last Update | May 2022

Monthly Update – May 2022

During May, iDrive:

• Continued the 90% discount for the first year only.

Today, I’m here to introduce

The idea was born out of the experience of managing iDrive Cloud for Backup and RemotePC for remote access. These two world-class services combined now host over 4,000 servers across multiple data centers in every continent and 300 Petabytes of storage.

iDrive Compute delivers affordable and straightforward Linux cloud solutions and services at over 20 locations in the US and Dublin, Ireland. It provides reliable, highly available, and fast-performing edge computing infrastructure. In turn, its customers benefit from incredible scalability, rapid connectivity, and low latency.

Fast forward,

Now, the question is, can this VPS provider pass the test and stand right up there with the best companies in the industry? Or does it fall behind in terms of features and prices? Let’s check it out!

Getting Started with iDrive Compute

What I love about a website is an interface that’s easy on the eyes. And I have to give it to iDrive Compute – they allow for an incredible welcome!

As soon as you visit its site, you will spot what the provider offers, Virtual Private Servers you can trust. Everything is well-organized in the top menu. You can find

If you scroll a bit down on the homepage, you can also find a more detailed overview of iDrive Compute’s services. As a customer, you can instantly create compute instances on VPS using a standard Linux OS, shared or dedicated processors, memory, and best-in-class NVMe storage.

Continuing to Features – With iDrive Compute, you can benefit from a pay-as-you-go model without hidden charges. The provider bills you by hours of usage. In turn, you will pay only for the hours you use the resources.

Next, using a virtual server space, you can accommodate computing projects of any scale and size.

Better yet, as your processing and storage requirements grow, you can easily add more resources to your instances (without any default resource provisioning).

iDrive Compute allows you to implement SSH Key-based authentication and firewalls to control traffic to the instances, thus protecting them from malicious attacks. You can also enable automated or on-demand backups, further boosting your protection.

Still, the best part is, the team of experts will handle all hardware upgrades and maintenance on iDrive Compute. To put it another way, you will receive round-the-clock support.

In the Instances tab, you can find all details regarding the building process.

iDrive Compute also offers bare-metal instances from non-virtualized hardware.

Next, in the Block Storage tab, you can get secure and scalable SSD-powered virtual block devices for additional data storage.

At this point, I have to say – I am amazed by

So, what’s the next step? You got it right – it’s the purchase!

If you click on Pricing in the top menu, you will get to all plans that iDrive Compute offers. Here’s how it looks!

On the left side, you can choose from Shared CPU, Dedicated CPU, and Bare Metal.

If you go for a Shared CPU, at a minimum, you can get 1 CPU Core, 1 GB RAM, 40 GB NVMe Disk Size, and 1 TB Bandwidth. The most expensive offer takes things to another level – 32 CPU Cores, 64 GB RAM, 1,280 GB NVMe Disk Size, and 12 TB Bandwidth.

As you can spot, you can also choose from monthly and yearly plans.

The second product, Dedicated CPU, is divided into CPU-Optimized and Memory-Optimized to suit your unique edge computing needs better.

The CPU-optimized plans are most suitable for front-end web servers and demanding CPU-intensive apps, such as machine learning, video encoding, and ad serving.

In turn, the Memory-Optimized is the better choice for RAM-intensive apps, in-memory databases, and big data processing. In other words, computing instances depend more on the RAM than the CPU.

Finally, the Bare Metal servers are available on demand.

As always, I will go for the cheapest solution. See, I am here for the testing only. So, it’s best to try and avoid any unnecessary expenses. But that’s not all. Getting the cheapest plan allows me to test what a web hosting company has to provide at a minimum. And it only gets better from there. The more you pay – the more you receive!

Once you find a plan suitable for your requirements, click ‘Buy Now.’ Then, you will see the following screen.

I don’t have an account. So, I need to sign up.

To create an account, first, you will need to enter your email address and create a password.

Next, you need to verify your email address.

Let’s check what I have in my inbox. Here it is!

Once you click the button on your email, you will complete the verification and use your account. All you need to do at this point is log in.

And I’m in!

Setting Things up at iDrive Compute

As soon as you log in, the website will transfer you to ‘My Account.’

Here, you can find Profile Details, Credit Card, Billing History, My Invoices, and Security.

In Profile Details, you can find Account Information and Phone Number. You can also change your password here or cancel your account.

Next, in Credit Card, you need to provide information for billing purposes.

You can review all the billing transactions for your account. This section is divided into Instances, Images, Volumes, and Bandwidth Usage. You can also find a Summary tab and your total cost/month.

Your invoice details are listed in the My Invoices tab. And, at last, you can find the option for two-step verification in Security.

Now, you can spot the red button ‘Create Instance’ above your account. Keep in mind; it’s the starting point for your hosting journey.

Once you click on ‘Create Instance,’ you can create a virtual instance or bare metal server of your choice. First, choose one of the two options.

Next, you need to select a region. As I mentioned before, iDrive Compute offers 20 locations in the US and one in Dublin, Ireland.

Then, you need to choose a distribution (Fedora, openSUSE Leap, Ubuntu, Debian, CentOS).

You can also upload an image from a hard disk or import it via URL to create an instance with a custom OS of your choice. Here, you can also find the Application Stack.

If you scroll a bit down, you will find the pricing plans. I explained iDrive Compute’s offering before, so that I will skip on that now.

Under Authentication, you can find SSH Keys and Password. You can choose an existing or add a new SSH key to configure secure login authentication.

You can also check the user-data option. It allows for arbitrary data to the instance during its creation.

Once you select everything according to your needs and preferences, you can finalize the process and create the instance. Here, you can also choose a unit name for your product.

You can create several instances with the same configuration by clicking the plus sign next to ‘1 Unit.’

At last, you can find the optional add-ons. At this point,

As you check each field, you will notice the information in the Instance Summary on the right side changing. Finally, you can review your order. If everything seems to your requirements, you can click Create.

Then, you can see your instance within the list. Mine is active!

That’s more or less all there is within the first tab of the menu (Instances). Below it, you can also find SSH Keys, Firewalls, Volumes, Images, Users, Activity Logs, and Settings.

In SSH Keys, you can add keys to your account and use those while creating instances for logging in securely.

In Firewalls, you can review your existing protection or add a new one.

If you click on the blue button in the top right named ‘Create Firewall,’ you will see the following screen. Here, you can select a region and a name for your firewall to control network traffic for the instances.

The next tab is Volumes.

Under Images, you can manage image backups, snapshots, and custom images of your compute instances. The provider also enables you to edit, delete, download, or use the images to create new instances.

In the top right, you can find the option to upload an image. As mentioned, you can upload from an URL or a hard disk. You can also select a region and provide a name for the custom image.

In the Users tab, you can add users to your account by sending an activation link. The newly registered users can access your account and use the linked instances and other resources.

All you need to do to Add Users is to enter their email addresses.

Web and Instance Activities are part of Activity Logs. They provide a comprehensive view of all your past activities within the control panel.

Finally, in Security, you can enable two-step verification.

I have to say; the control panel is straightforward to use. However, what I didn’t like here was the lack of customer support options. There’s no tab for support within the menu nor a live chat option.

Performance, Speed, and Uptime

Furthermore, IDrive Compute provides a 99.99% uptime SLA for both virtual instances and Bare Metal nodes. The provider compensates all its users for any lost time. The refund goes back to the user account, calculated on an hourly rate basis. You can get credit for the downtime by contacting iDrive support (creating a ticket).

However, there are no other speed- or performance-enhancing features, such as Cloudflare CDN or similar.

Level of Support at iDrive Compute

First, you can find three available phone numbers (UK, US, and Other Countries) to contact technical support, billing, and sales. However, they are only available during work hours, or Monday – Friday, 6:00 AM to 11:30 PM PST.

You can also reach the iDrive Compute team via email, 24/7 live chat, or support form.

Let’s start the chat to check whether they are truly available 24/7 or it’s a marketing trick.

Here’s my brief overview of the chat: I was immediately linked with a support agent. I received fast and helpful responses. So, they have the green light from me!

If you are interested in the conversation (and my silly questions) – here’s how it went!

It is the first question that came to mind.

The support agent checked my account in a few minutes. I received a response by email.

Next, you can find lots of valuable tips and guidance within FAQs (text) and Tutorials (video). Essentially, the provider has covered many needed topics in-depth to assist its current and potential customers.

The FAQs section is divided into Getting Started, Instances, Volumes, Bare Metal, User Management, Billing, and Account Management. In turn, you can easily find what you are looking for.

Now, usually, I like testing the refund policies of web hosting companies. However, today, I am unable to do so. See, iDrive Compute offers refunds only on the yearly plans. As mentioned, the monthly plans work on the postpaid principle.

So, let’s cancel my subscription. As satisfied as I am with the service, I was here to test only. To cancel your account, you need to log in to your profile, more precisely, the My Account section. In Profile Details, you can find the option at the bottom of the page with a blue link.

Once you click on it, you will see the following screen. I like that

When you click on Cancel My Account,

And that’s the end of my journey with iDrive Compute. Still, I have to say; we had a great time.

Security and Backups

As I explained over the review, iDrive Compute offers several security options. For instance, you can set up two-step verification, SSH keys, enable backups and snapshots, and make use of advanced user access controls. The provider also delivers a default firewall, while you can also create one of your own.

If you have any issues with security and backups, you can indeed find a step-by-step guide to help you along the way.

When it comes to backups,

You can enable a backup for an instance anytime later, not just on the instance creation. To do so, you need to sign in to your IDrive Compute account, click Actions on the instance that you want to backup, and select Configure Backup. Then, click either Enable Daily Backup or Enable Weekly Backup in the Backups tab.

Specific Features of iDrive Compute

What makes iDrive Compute unique? Let’s check its superior qualities!

• Standard Linux OS (CentOS, Ubuntu, Fedora, OpenSUSE, and Debian distribution or a custom image)
• Top-Notch Hardware (Robust Servers; Enterprise-Grade Processors with Higher-Capacity RAM, And NVMe)
• One-Click Apps with Pre-Built App Stack Images (Django, Docker, Jenkins, LAMP, LEMP, Minecraft, or MySQL)
• Customizable CPU Configuration
• Pay-As-You-Use Billing Model (You Pay Only for The Hours You Use the Resources)
• Scalability On-Demand (Without Any Default Resource Provisioning)
• Automated and On-Demand Backups
• Easy and Fast Instance Cloning
• Simple User Interface
• Excellent Security and Compliance

Monthly Updates

During April 2022, iDrive:

• Continued the 90% discount for the first year only.
• Introduced and offered 50% off on its e2 Cloud Storage.
• Introduced a new update to its iDrive Photos.

During March 2022, iDrive:

• Continued the 90% discount for the first year only.
• PCMag recommended iDrive Photos as an Alternative to Google Photos.

During February 2022, iDrive:

• Continued the 90% discount for the first year only.

During January 2022, iDrive:

• Continued the 90% discount for the first year only

During December 2021, iDrive:

• Continued the 90% discount for the first year only.

During November 2021, iDrive:

• Offered a 90% discount for the first year only
• Won PC Magazine’s Editors Choice Award for Best Cloud Storage and File Sharing Solution

Summary

The best part about iDrive Compute is the incredible ease of use at all stages of the process – from registration to instance management and account cancelation. It’s a straightforward solution, even for beginners!

However, iDrive Compute’s server network is pretty limited. They don’t offer international locations. Instead, you can find 20 locations in the US and one in Ireland. Also, there’s no Windows version of the web hosting plans nor phone support after work hours. The provider is indeed falling behind the competition in this regard.