Virtual machines priced by what you reserve.
Spark instances run on compute nodes Carpathian owns in Des Moines. You price a machine by its parts, vCPU, memory, and disk, instead of picking whichever plan tier happens to carry the one number you need. Compute is never metered, so what you reserve is what you pay for, whether the instance idles for a month or runs flat out.
Instance
base configurationWhat every instance includes
The base instance is 1 vCPU, 1 GB of RAM, and 20 GB of disk. Everything above that is a component you chose to add, and the three scale independently, so a workload that wants memory does not oblige you to buy cores it will never use.
The list below is not a tier. It is what an instance carries the moment it boots, on the base configuration and on the largest one you can assemble, with none of it held back behind a higher plan.
- Full root or administrator access over SSH, RDP, or VNC-based screen sharing
- Ubuntu, Debian, CentOS, or Windows Server
- A base network speed tier and data allowance
- Uptime checks, SSL monitoring, and DDoS mitigation
- Nightly backup archives and snapshots you can take yourself
- Standard disk images, exportable, in no proprietary format
- A 99.5% uptime SLA backed by monitoring on the host
- Resizing that adds vCPU, memory, or disk without a rebuild
Compute is never metered
The invoice follows what you reserved. Nothing on the compute side of it moves because of how hard the machine worked, and the one resource that does carry a usage limit answers with a speed change rather than a charge.
Priced per component
vCPU, memory, and disk are separate lines with separate rates, so you size each one against what the workload asks for. A database server that wants memory and a build runner that wants cores end up as two different machines rather than two rungs of the same ladder. The rate for each component is published on the pricing page, and the price of an instance is the sum of what you selected. Nothing is bundled in to round the number up.
Prorated to the day
Billing runs monthly and prorates to the day. Add disk partway through a month and you are charged for the days you had it rather than for the whole cycle you were in the middle of. There is no setup fee to clear before the first month and no minimum term holding the account open, so an instance that exists for three weeks is billed for three weeks.
The bandwidth default is a speed change
Every instance includes a base network speed tier and a data allowance. When you reach the allowance, the default is that speed falls back to the base tier until the next billing cycle and nothing further is charged, which means a traffic spike changes how fast the machine serves and leaves the invoice where it was. Overage billing exists for the case where full speed past the allowance matters more than a fixed bill, and it applies only if you opt into it. Beyond the base tier you choose a network plan for your organization, and that plan covers every server on the network rather than being charged per machine, so a second and third instance do not each arrive with their own bandwidth line.
One invoice
Compute, network, and the monitoring that comes with the instance arrive on one monthly invoice. There is no per-hour compute line to reconcile against a usage graph, no compute overage, and no credit balance that quietly empties during a busy week and throttles the machine you already paid for. What you agreed to reserve is what shows up.
From priced to connected
Four steps, and the first of them happens before you have an account.
- Price the machineSet vCPU, memory, and disk on the pricing page, which needs no account. The base instance is 1 vCPU, 1 GB of RAM, and 20 GB of disk, and every unit above that is a line you chose to add.
- Pick an imageUbuntu, Debian, CentOS, or Windows Server. Whichever you take is a standard disk image, which is also the format you get back if you ever export it.
- ProvisionThe instance is created on a compute node in US Central 001 and comes up with an address, your image, and root or administrator access already in place.
- ConnectSSH for a shell, RDP for Windows Server, VNC-based screen sharing for a graphical desktop. You use the client you already have rather than a console we put between you and the machine.
Why the rates look the way they do
We own the compute nodes and we own the buildings they sit in. Much of the hardware is enterprise equipment bought after its first depreciation cycle and rebuilt to our own spec, which is a long way from paying list price for the same silicon in its first year.
That is a structural cost position rather than a promotion. It is not an introductory rate that resets at renewal, and it is not a discount funded by metering something else on the way past. The published component rates are what the dashboard charges, and they are on the pricing page rather than behind a quote form.
What we do not claim
Both of our facilities are in Des Moines, Iowa. US Central 001 carries production and US Central 002 is the disaster recovery site, running the same hardware and the same network with automated failover between them. Each building has its own power and cooling, so a failure in one does not travel to the other.
That is site redundancy, and we will not describe it as anything else. It is not geographic diversity across separate power grids or separate weather systems, because both buildings sit in the same metro. If your compliance obligations require regional separation, raise it in the first conversation and we will tell you plainly whether we can meet them today.
Bare metal is in development and is not available to provision, so everything on this page describes virtual machines running on shared compute nodes.
Questions we get before the first instance
What does the base instance include?
Is compute metered?
What happens when I pass the data allowance?
Can I resize an instance without rebuilding it?
Which operating systems can I run, and how do I connect?
Where do the instances physically run?
Is that geographic redundancy?
What if I want to move somewhere else?
The rest of what runs on this hardware
The cloud overview covers everything running on these compute nodes, and the data centers page describes the two Des Moines buildings in more detail. If you want the software on the instance built as well as hosted, that is our software practice.
Price the exact machine you need.
Set vCPU, memory, and disk against the published component rates and watch the price move as you change each one. Billing is monthly and prorated to the day, with no setup fee and no minimum term. If you would rather work through the sizing with someone first, the person answering is one of the engineers who runs the hardware.