Test Of Digital Ocean Singapore Datacenter VPS

When I learnt that Digital Ocean offers VPS in Singapore, I was eager to test it and see what the latency to India would be.

(I have earlier done a head-to-head comparison between Digital Ocean and Ram Node)

Test IP & Test Files for the Digital Ocean Singapore DC:

The test IP and Test files for download are available here:

http://speedtest-sgp1.digitalocean.com/

The test IP is: 128.199.236.18

Latency from Mumbai, India:

C:Usersadmin>ping speedtest-sgp1.digitalocean.com

Pinging speedtest-sgp1.digitalocean.com [128.199.236.18] with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 128.199.236.18: bytes=32 time=100ms TTL=52
Reply from 128.199.236.18: bytes=32 time=99ms TTL=52
Reply from 128.199.236.18: bytes=32 time=108ms TTL=52
Reply from 128.199.236.18: bytes=32 time=107ms TTL=52

Ping statistics for 128.199.236.18:
    Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
    Minimum = 99ms, Maximum = 108ms, Average = 103ms

C:Usersadmin>

The latency ranged from 103 to 116ms. This is very good.

In contrast, when I pinged my Ramnode VPS in Netherlands, I got a latency of 204ms. When I pinged by BHost VPS in London, I got a latency of 220ms.

So, the latency between Singapore and India is definitely a factor in favour.

Checking the processor used for the VPS

root@Singapore:~# cat /proc/cpuinfo
processor       : 0
vendor_id       : GenuineIntel
cpu family      : 6
model           : 45
model name      : Intel(R) Xeon(R) CPU E5-2630L 0 @ 2.00GHz
stepping        : 7
microcode       : 0x1
cpu MHz         : 1999.999
cache size      : 4096 KB
cpu cores       : 1
root@Singapore:~#

The processor seems to be quite average ay only 2.00GHz and 1 core. Ram Node offers a better deal though this makes no difference in real life.

Checking the I/O (Input Output ratio) of the VPS:

root@Singapore:~# dd if=/dev/zero of=test bs=64k count=16k conv=fdatasync
16384+0 records in
16384+0 records out
1073741824 bytes (1.1 GB) copied, 4.38688 s, 245 MB/s
root@Singapore:~#

Checking the download speed of the VPS using wget:

root@Singapore:~# wget cachefly.cachefly.net/100mb.test
--2014-06-08 10:01:50--  http://cachefly.cachefly.net/100mb.test
Resolving cachefly.cachefly.net (cachefly.cachefly.net)... 204.93.150.151
Connecting to cachefly.cachefly.net (cachefly.cachefly.net)|204.93.150.151|:80... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
Length: 104857600 (100M) [application/octet-stream]
Saving to: â100mb.test.1â

100%[======================================>] 104,857,600 11.7MB/s   in 9.6s

2014-06-08 10:02:00 (10.5 MB/s) - â100mb.test.1â saved [104857600/104857600]

root@Singapore:~#

Checking the Upload & Download Speeds using the python tool:

root@Singapore:~# python speedtest-cli
Retrieving speedtest.net configuration...
Retrieving speedtest.net server list...
Testing from DigitalOcean (128.199.179.249)...
Selecting best server based on ping...
Hosted by NewMedia Express (Singapore) [6.25 km]: 12.636 ms
Testing download speed........................................
Download: 551.15 Mbits/s
Testing upload speed..................................................
Upload: 383.64 Mbits/s
root@Singapore:~#

Checking the download speed from my RamNode VPS in Netherlands:

[root@backup ~]# wget http://speedtest-sgp1.digitalocean.com/100mb.test
--2014-06-08 09:49:59--  http://speedtest-sgp1.digitalocean.com/100mb.test
Resolving speedtest-sgp1.digitalocean.com... 128.199.236.18, 2400:6180:0:d0::1:5001
Connecting to speedtest-sgp1.digitalocean.com|128.199.236.18|:80... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
Length: 104857600 (100M) [application/octet-stream]
Saving to: `100mb.test'

100%[======================================>] 104,857,600 6.27M/s   in 19s

2014-06-08 09:50:18 (5.40 MB/s) - `100mb.test' saved [104857600/104857600]

[root@backup ~]#

The speed is quite average at only 5.40MB/s

Checking the download speed from my leapswitch VPS in Mumbai, India:

root@leapswitch:~# wget http://speedtest-sgp1.digitalocean.com/100mb.test
--2014-06-08 17:38:12--  http://speedtest-sgp1.digitalocean.com/100mb.test
Resolving speedtest-sgp1.digitalocean.com (speedtest-sgp1.digitalocean.com)... 128.199.236.18, 2400:6180:0:d0::1:5001
Connecting to speedtest-sgp1.digitalocean.com (speedtest-sgp1.digitalocean.com)|128.199.236.18|:80... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
Length: 104857600 (100M) [application/octet-stream]
Saving to: `100mb.test'

100%[======================================>] 104,857,600 3.46M/s   in 28s

2014-06-08 17:38:40 (3.57 MB/s) - `100mb.test' saved [104857600/104857600]

root@leapswitch:~#

The speed is quite poor at only 3.57MB/s.

Conclusion: If you are serving visitors in India but cannot afford an Indian VPS like Leapswitch, hostgator.in or VR.org (hostvirtual), the Singapore DC is an excellent option. The price is rock-bottom. For a 512MB RAM VPS with SSD, it is a mere $5 per month. It is an excellent deal.