ZelNodes — Zel Partners with Service Providers for Rollout
As ZelNodes near (Jan. 31st), we are teaming up with VPS and hardware providers so you can stand up your ZelNode successfully on launch day
With the launch of ZelNodes fast approaching, the question for many future node operators becomes which hardware solution to use: a Virtual Private Server (VPS) cloud provider or hosting hardware (server). The ZelNodes computing network is envisioned to be fully decentralized, both in the large number of independent node operators and the geographic location of the ZelNodes themselves.
The Zel Team is diligently working on partnerships and affiliate programs with VPS operations and potentially hardware providers to aid the Zel Community in making their decision on how best to host a ZelNode for each operator’s needs and to create options for decentralization. Ultimately, it’s up to the community about where/how to operate their nodes, and with service partnerships, more options become available continuously. With that, we have partnered with the following VPS providers (list will be expanded as new partnerships/affiliations are created):
- DigitalOcean
- Amazon Web Services
Digital Ocean Developer Cloud
DigitalOcean (DO) is unique among other cloud and VPS providers as they supply cloud services tailored to meet the needs of developers & teams. In addition to their focus on simplicity, community, and support, they also cater to the core technical needs of developers including greater usage of hardware resources and better uptime guarantees than many other providers. DO calls their VPS’s Droplets, and they are among the easiest in the market to set up and maintain. Unlike many other providers DO has no caps on how much each VPS can actually be utilized. This is critical because usage caps could potentially cause a node operator to lose their rewards if the minimum benchmark and uptime requirements are not met, which would massively hinder our envisioned ZelNodes network.
DigitalOcean offers servers in many physical locations around the world, including:
Amsterdam, Bangalore, France, London, New York City, San Francisco, Singapore, and Toronto,
providing geographic decentralization packaged with the ease-of-use of DO.
What the partnership means
Together, we will be providing discounts for customers using DigitalOcean Droplets for ZelNodes. This discount will scale based on usage of the entire community, so the more Droplets stood up, the larger the discount will be for everyone.
When you sign up with DigitalOcean to set up your ZelNode, you can use our referral code (below) to receive a $100 credit valid for 60 days. After 60 days, the discount will be re-evaluated based on number of users and adjusted. If there are a substantial number of users, the discount can increase.
Referral code: https://m.do.co/c/c9c22684c5db
We will have a custom portal for the Zel Community so the process of purchasing, deploying, and setting up your ZelNode couldn’t be easier or quicker. If you want to lock in your node rewards by ensuring benchmarking and uptime requirements, please consider DigitalOcean for VPS services.
Since we desire decentralization of node operators and geography, which requires multiple VPS providers, we have also partnered with Amazon Web Services.
Amazon Web Services VPS
Amazon Web Services (AWS) is another large VPS operator that provides servers for those demanding high system requirements and reliable uptimes. AWS offers many different types of VPS’s to cover all types of needs, including packages that meet the requirements for ZelNodes. AWS is a good option for those who want to set up a ZelNode and forget about it, just like DigitalOcean.
We will continue to expand our partnerships to other VPS service providers as ZelNodes continue to develop.
Hardware System Requirements
The specifications for hardware are still being developed. General guidance for those looking to secure their own hardware (either running themselves or co-locating to a data center) is that ZelNodes will be enterprise-grade servers, such as you find in other data centers, but decentralized both by who operates them and their physical location. With that said, an 8-core i7 from 5 years ago is not going to perform the same as an 8-core Xeon server chip. We will release minimum hardware specs ASAP. A possible option would be to use the DigitalOcean discount to run a ZelNode on a VPS for the first moth while everything is shaken out, then build/buy your server after all specs can be confirmed by testing after ZelNode rollout. Thank you for understanding.
Benchmarking/Uptime Requirement Advisory
No matter if you plan to use a VPS or host your own hardware, we are developing as many partnerships as possible to create a robust offering to the Zel Community. As a reminder, we are striving to create a highly available computing network never before deployed, and this means that the servers must be powerful and resources available. Simply, a cut-rate provider, even if it meets the basic hardware specs, does not always mean those resources are available to you all the time, e.g. a provider giving BAMF specs for $50/month will most likely not allow you access to these resources all the time, meaning you could miss the benchmarking and/or uptime requirements and lose your reward. Be careful who you choose and do your research.
The above partnerships are ongoing and will continue to develop, meaning we will continue to release information as it becomes available. We will also continue to create partnerships with VPS and hardware providers to bolster the possibilities, and create lists of supported VPS’s that we know meet the requirements.
If you want to have your ZelNode ready and running at launch, we recommend using a provider that we have partnered with to ensure the computational node meets the specs and rewards are received regularly.
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Written by Zel Technologies, GmbH —04 January 2019 — Rev. 1
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