What needs improvement with Linode?

The Cloud Manager interface sometimes feels slow, particularly when accessed from Asia. Compared to the previous non-React interface, the current version could be more responsive.

I'm not sure what could be improved at Linode since they're likely already making enhancements, especially with the Akamai acquisition and, I don't have any specific suggestions as I haven't encountered any major issues. I might consider using API for managing DNS records, but overall, I'm satisfied with Linode.

The tool is not really stable and secure compared to Windows instances. The product must improve its security.

There is room for improvement regarding customer support.

Unfortunately, we're not notified when new upgrades come out so it's difficult for us to communicate with our customers. Added to this is an issue we have with the maintenance service which contributes to the difficulty in communication. I'd like to see a Lambda storage service or an S3 as an additional feature.

The network between different servers isn't very good. I have to install additional solutions to link the servers with each other.

It's not really an issue with Linode itself but upgrading Linux major versions can be challenging. It would be be fantastic if Linode developed a way to ease transitioning to a major new Linux upgrade.

One thing that I'd really like to see is auto-scaling node pools for their Kubernetes. I don't think that they have that. That's a huge one and would be very helpful. Specifically, what I would like is auto-scaling node pools that would scale down to zero nodes, which is tricky. That's very important for certain use cases. Azure does provide that functionality, although only recently, and it was quite buggy when Azure unreleased it.

The biggest room for improvement would be the object storage, bringing that to more data centres. At the moment, it's only in three of their many data centres. They are already working on the firewalls and VLANs, which need improvement, and are now in beta. I am on the beta program for the firewalls, but I can't use it yet because they are only in Mumbai and Australia, and I am not in those data centres. This is the one thing that I have been waiting for almost since the day that I joined them, so it is nice that they are doing that. The VLANs will be an improvement as well, and I am keen and waiting for that. Another improvement would be on the server side, e.g., if they could support non-Linux OSs, like FreeBSD or even Windows. I heard a rumor that they might be looking at doing this. I understand that they have been focused on Linux their entire lifetime, so this would be a big change for them.

It would be nice if they had more data centers in Latin America. Although not for our use case, I believe others would benefit from having support in other languages. For example, in this region, there are people who speak Spanish and Portuguese. This is the same for the guides, where having translated versions would be helpful.

It is important to me that Linode offers worldwide coverage via multiple data centers, although it is also an issue for me. In running my social media site, I am not spying on users or reselling their data. For many users, it is really important to know that their data will be handled according to the law in their country. I am located on the East coast of Canada but have my node at a data center in California. You can decide where you want to create your note. For example, I know that they have a data center in Europe, so at some point, I will create a node there. Because it's a distributed system, when the user creates their account, they can choose to have it there if they want the data to be stored according to European regulations. The data will remain there forever. The issue comes about because Linode is a US company, so my users have to wonder how shielded they are from US law. I know of a situation involving Microsoft, which is a very large company, and they were fighting the US government because they have a data center in Ireland. The US wanted to retrieve data from it and Microsoft declined because it was out of their jurisdiction. Some people are concerned with having their data shielded from US law and I spoke with Linode about this, and they don't have an answer. In fact, if the US government asked Linode for help spying on a customer in Europe, Linode would not even be allowed to tell anyone about it. It is clear that Linode has the technology to spy on usage, although that is not to say that they are doing it.

It would be wonderful to have the person that is most familiar with an issue when you call up available on the phone immediately, but I understand that can't always be the case. There are too many different kinds of issues and you need a hierarchy for people to handle concerns. I've had some difficulties with some of their IP addresses being banned by certain mail servers. I think it's based on the size of their network that they manage and the fact that they have different users within C-blocks of IPs that might be spam filters affecting anybody else that's on that same network. It's a difficult problem to address, but it does affect us occasionally, and having your email rejected is not something any of us like dealing with. Typically, we try to reach out to the party that is blocking the IP address. On occasion, it takes contacting Linode and having them also reach out and request that the IP be unblocked. So far, that's been adequate.

They recently changed the web interface and although the older one did not look as good, the new one is less responsive. For example, when you changed something, it was instant. The new interface was really bad when it was first released, and it has improved, yet it is still not as responsive as the older one. I have considered whether being in Thailand makes a difference, although it is still a relative comparison. This is something that I have written an email to them about, and they are working on improving it.

Before they changed the dashboard, I found some of the more granular options easier to find. However, it was just a matter of getting used to the new interface.

They don't provide managed databases so when we need one, we have to build and install a server and manage the database by ourselves. This is an important feature for us that should be added. Currently, the object storage and volumes features are insufficient for our needs. We need an actual database. They have recently started to provide cloud firewall service on some of their data centers but it's not widely available yet. This is something that would be nice to have, although it's not very important. Having a load-balancer feature would be nice, and I have been reading that this is something that they have been working on for the past few years. It's surprising that they're very slow when it comes to implementing certain features. They don't have role-based access control, which is problematic for us. Imagine a case where you have multiple departments and you have a number of servers and you want to give limited access to some departments or some people. You just can't do that. Another example is that when you have an additional user account on your panel, that user will have access to everything. They will be able to reboot servers, modify DNS records, or do dangerous things that you don't need them to or want them to. Role-based access control is something that Amazon provides, Google provides, and Azure provides, and it's unfortunate that it is not available as a feature.

I would like to see more seamless integration with backup, although it's pretty easy to do. Having more on-demand features would be helpful. For example, if for a little while I wanted to have four Linodes instead of just a single one, it seems like it's a little bit more difficult than spinning up an EC2 instance in AWS. It isn't a lot harder, but it could be improved nonetheless.

Because they are a smaller company, they do not have, for example, all of the ways for authentication that Amazon or Azure has. However, that's not a downside for me because it means it's less complex to implement for us. So, while it is simple compared to some large solutions, that's a benefit to me and not a drawback.

The support service and knowledge articles supplied by Linode are very comprehensive but inevitably there are situations where a user, particularly is a "newbie" is left on his or her own. The only improvement in this aspect of the service which I can think of is perhaps a pool of developers who could be hired for those cases where the need goes beyond the support offered. Offering this as a service would enhance the product. All of our servers have been configured and upgraded by our own staff, which has been a good training exercise, although at times on very tight schedules when a little guidance would have helped. I do realize this is beyond the normal remit of support, which is why I am suggesting a separate pool. Perhaps Linode could approve third-party providers and take a commission of the work provided?

Right now, they don't have multiple data centers. They have limited data centers. I am currently using the Singapore and Mumbai data centers, but I am looking for data centers in Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and Africa. They need to improve the availability of their data centers and partnership engagements with cloud Panda solution providers, like us.

It would be helpful if they provided the additional Linux distributions that I prefer using. But there is still a workaround. I can do it without direct support. It's a bit more complicated, but it can still be done.

Everything is up-to-date for a small business. But for big business, they need to improve certain things. For example, there should be better security. They also need to provide the ability to set limits. I should be able to turn off an instance at a given percentage of its capacity.

The suitability of this solution depends on the features that you need. If you're an Uber-sized company then you're probably not going to want to start using Linode. If you are a large-sized organization then you're going to want to start using one of the bigger providers that gives you the scalability and the feature set that you are probably going to be needing in the future.

When it comes to marketing and exposure, Linode needs improvement because I just randomly found them by looking for Linux solutions. If we're in a position where we were trying to persuade our users to put their archive inquiries on to Linode, then perhaps their low profile might be a problem.

While Linode works well for people who have some technical experience, e.g., I am good with Linux and very comfortable with the command line, I can understand how people who are not so comfortable with the command line probably prefer a lot of feature-based cloud services. I would like Linode (without cluttering things) to provide some type of DevOps workflow where people are configuring their pipelines from running their tests and deploying to their test server. Once approved by clicking a button, it just gets deployed to production. I would like something like Azure DevOps, which we use for large applications, and would be something nice to have in Linode.

Linode offers worldwide coverage via multiple data centers, which is very important to me. I would like to see more European offerings. I know they have Frankfurt available right now. I would personally like to see more data centers throughout Europe or Eastern Europe available. They could have more international servers. There are certain places throughout Europe and Eastern Europe which are very open to doing a lot of technology business, such as Romania. Romania is very open to technology. At other service providers, I have stuff in Romania. I think there are some Eastern European locations that would be more open to it. So, if they could have more European points of presence, that would be more helpful.

It would be helpful if they offered a service where they handle the Linux security. Securing your own server is very difficult when you think of denial of service attacks, man in the middle attacks, and other such threats. They have documented it really well, and the documentation is very good, but I struggle to maintain a really secure server because I just don't have the expertise. If there were help available that could be provided, I would definitely pay for it.