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software Does cloud computers make sense for editors? vagon.io

Hello everyone,

I need your feedback on my startup.

I have been spending some time in indietalk to understand filmmaking and editing better, to get insights for a product that we are building. I think it will be better to ask you directly to understand if it is a real problem solver or not.

It is called vagon - a high-performance cloud computer mainly for video editors and creative users where you can create a computer and use it anywhere from any device to run video editing or other software better. Its performance is flexible and it goes up to 122GB RAM with x16 core and 8GB GPU etc. There are some specific features for editors to make their life easier: for ex. easy file management feature and "boost" - Let's say you have 8x core 32GB vagon cloud computer and when you need to export video, you can just start a much more powerful machine instantly and seamlessly to complete export even faster.

Please check (vagon.io). Does it make sense? What features should we build to solve any other problem of editors that we are missing?

Much appreciated!!!!
 
Forget about the nightmares of your computer crashing during a critical project.
As a travelling photographer who generates several hundred GB of image files for later processing, I have found the most unreliable component in any project is the internet connection. I've been let down by ADSL, fibre broadband and mobile data, and would say that my ratio of lost internet to computer crashes is somewhere in the region of 1000:1 (OK, maybe 250:1 if I include working on Windows 10 over a broadband connection :tongue: ) So that's not a selling point for me.

I'm not anti-cloud - have dropbox, google drive and gmail accounts, and use dozens of cloud-based apps/programs for non-critical activities. But for work that requires any degree of finesse or speed - even word-processing - I much prefer having my software on a local machine, even if it's not top-of-the-range.

Also, the programs for which I need the most computing power are also those which I need the most hardware: a full-size keyboard, two or three screens, mouse, drawing pad, multiple external storage sources, etc. Looking (quickly) at the website, I don't see how the service can take account of these. Multiscreen support would be the main thing - can it handle that?
 
As a travelling photographer who generates several hundred GB of image files for later processing, I have found the most unreliable component in any project is the internet connection. I've been let down by ADSL, fibre broadband and mobile data, and would say that my ratio of lost internet to computer crashes is somewhere in the region of 1000:1 (OK, maybe 250:1 if I include working on Windows 10 over a broadband connection :tongue: ) So that's not a selling point for me.

I'm not anti-cloud - have dropbox, google drive and gmail accounts, and use dozens of cloud-based apps/programs for non-critical activities. But for work that requires any degree of finesse or speed - even word-processing - I much prefer having my software on a local machine, even if it's not top-of-the-range.

Also, the programs for which I need the most computing power are also those which I need the most hardware: a full-size keyboard, two or three screens, mouse, drawing pad, multiple external storage sources, etc. Looking (quickly) at the website, I don't see how the service can take account of these. Multiscreen support would be the main thing - can it handle that?

There is a lot of crucial feedback in your reply. I thank you for it first.

Internet connection problem is a challenge for us. We are targeting more available regions at first, Nort America, Europe, and South-East Asia where the infrastructure is adequate to maintain a healthy connection. Otherwise, it will not work as you have stated already.

We are already working on some of the features you mentioned, users will be able to connect and use their external hardware and working environment. Multiscreen support will definitely come, though it will take some time to build as a solid feature:) If our team and user base grow faster, we will be able to deliver those and other features hopefully a lot sooner.

I'd like to ask you something: If you were working relatively stable in your home or so, does it make sense to having access to a much more powerful computer when you need to? Can it be the alternative when you use if there is a challenging task?
 
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We are targeting more available regions at first, Nort America, Europe, and South-East Asia where the infrastructure is adequate to maintain a healthy connection.
:haha: North America? That's where I had the worst ever connectivity! Filled four SD cards with photos before I was able to find an Internet connection (long trip, last year). That's in relation to mobile coverage. Europe - can be very patchy too, especially inside old buildings. Africa (Kenya/Tanzania) - way better than the US, about the same as Europe (better than some areas).

But I'm not sure that this access to a high-spec machine is really relevant when you're on the move. For the most part, editing (or post-processing, in my case) is the kind of thing you want to do in a quiet and darkened room - unless you're working on footage that you're uploading daily/hourly to a social media platform. In which case, you'll probably be working with smartphone footage and relatively small files ...

If you were working relatively stable in your home or so, does it make sense to having access to a much more powerful computer when you need to? Can it be the alternative when you use if there is a challenging task?
Maybe - but it would be very intermittent. I'm not a professional, so most of my equipment and software is entry-level and chosen to work within the limitations of my computing power. That might well change in the future, but I'm not sure that it would address my concerns about cloud-based programs. By way of example: I use Google Docs to create a scratch-pad for ideas that come to me while I am travelling, and it does what I want of it. When I get home, though, despite a 110mb/s internet connection, there's just way too much lag when I'm typing - by my standards - so I revert to using a document on a local machine. I've experienced the same lag using any cloud-based service in any context. If I'm seeing that on text-based applications, you'd have to work really hard to convince me that video would stream effortlessly from your super-computer to my monitor.
 
:haha: North America? That's where I had the worst ever connectivity! Filled four SD cards with photos before I was able to find an Internet connection (long trip, last year). That's in relation to mobile coverage. Europe - can be very patchy too, especially inside old buildings. Africa (Kenya/Tanzania) - way better than the US, about the same as Europe (better than some areas).

But I'm not sure that this access to a high-spec machine is really relevant when you're on the move. For the most part, editing (or post-processing, in my case) is the kind of thing you want to do in a quiet and darkened room - unless you're working on footage that you're uploading daily/hourly to a social media platform. In which case, you'll probably be working with smartphone footage and relatively small files ...


Maybe - but it would be very intermittent. I'm not a professional, so most of my equipment and software is entry-level and chosen to work within the limitations of my computing power. That might well change in the future, but I'm not sure that it would address my concerns about cloud-based programs. By way of example: I use Google Docs to create a scratch-pad for ideas that come to me while I am travelling, and it does what I want of it. When I get home, though, despite a 110mb/s internet connection, there's just way too much lag when I'm typing - by my standards - so I revert to using a document on a local machine. I've experienced the same lag using any cloud-based service in any context. If I'm seeing that on text-based applications, you'd have to work really hard to convince me that video would stream effortlessly from your super-computer to my monitor.

Fair points. What I understand from your insights is it might be better to see if we can target people who really have complaints regarding their limited hardware rather than travelers etc. As you already said while traveling the problem is the connection, and a service relying heavily on your connection might not be so useful.

Thanks for the feedback!
 
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