Frequently Asked Questions

What is cloud computing?

Cloud computing is a service that allows you to rent and provision virtual computers to run your own computer applications. These services are scalable to your needs and allow you to perform compute-intensive tasks without having to buy and own the expensive computer hardware.

Is cloud computing complicated?

It certainly isn’t as easy as it should be! That is why we are actively trying to make it easier all of the time. We have designed the ComputeHub platform to make it easy to spin up a cloud computing instance. Once your server is up and running, you will need to know some Linux command line knowledge to configure your server. However, there are lots of guides and tools out there to help you with this including our Wiki and Youtube pages—which is the way most of the non-technical people on our team have learned. In our quest to continually make cloud computing easier, we are developing “quick setup” options for specific cloud computing use cases to further remove this barrier!

What are some things I can use it for?

The beauty of cloud computing is that it can be used to accomplish a variety of tasks. Some example applications include:

  • Application hosting

  • ETL (extract, transfer, and load)

  • Big data analysis and modeling

  • Website hosting

  • Testing and development

  • Video game server hosting, like Minecraft :)

  • File storage

  • Disaster recovery and backup

What GPUs do you offer?

Our current GPU offerings leverage the NVIDIA K80 GPU. Currently, we are only able to offer one K80 GPU core per instance but it is at the top of our roadmap to provide computing solutions for multi-core and multi-GPU. We also plan to offer additional GPU models in the future.

How much does it cost?

We have a simple pricing structure that we call “pay by the drink.” This means that you only pay for what resources you use and there are no hidden fees. As soon as you boot up an instance, you will begin being charged by the minute based on the specifications of that instance. As soon as you pause or delete your instance, you will no longer be billed for that instance. Any storage that you have is billed in a similar fashion and once it is deleted you will no longer be billed. Check out our Pricing page for details on exactly what our resources cost.

Do you have help documentation?

We have a Wiki page that we are currently populating with How-To guides as well as Tips and Tricks. We have a Youtube page that we have started posting videos on how to use the ComputeHub interface. If you don’t see what you need, please feel free to reach out to us directly by emailing support@nwhtc.com or through our Contact page.

What operating systems do you support?

We currently offer the following OS options at the time of instance creation:

  • Ubuntu 20.04

  • CentOS 7

  • Raspberry Pi OS

  • Windows Server 2019 (Standard Evaluation)

  • Kali Linux

  • Pop! OS

  • Windows 10 (Bring your own License)

You are responsible for Windows licenses. You can also install your own OS on any instance. So the options are truly endless!

What are Templates?

Templates are pre-configured VMs with a specific OS and other software pre-installed. This gives you a head start so that you spend less time installing software and updates. Current templates include:

  • Ubuntu 20.04 with updates for CPU

  • Ubuntu 20.04 with GPU drivers

  • MLHub—Machine Learning template with Anaconda and Tensorflow-gpu

  • DALL-E Playground

  • CentOS 7 with updates

Do you offer public IPs?

We sure do! Each instance requires at least one public IP due to the backend architecture. This allows you to access your instance externally from the ComputeHub network. However, you can always access your server through the ComputeHub console in the ComputeHub platform.

How do you invoice and how to do I pay?

We invoice on the last day of the month based on your previous month’s usage. Charges can always be viewed in the Current Charges section under Billing. Previous invoices can always be viewed under Invoices under Billing. The card you have on file in Billing Settings under Billing will be automatically charged shortly after 12:00am GMT on the first of the month. This way you don’t have to worry about remembering to pay your invoice each month!

How does the free credit work? Do I need a credit card?

All new users receive a free credit at the time of account creation. No credit card is needed to create an account. Once the free credit runs out, you will be required to enter in a valid form of payment to continue using the service. If you are not interested in continuing on, no problem!

Why a $1 charge to update billing details?

Each time you update your billing details, a $1 charge will be made to your account which will result in a $1 credit to your account. This is done to verify your form of payment and payment details are valid.

Do you accept cryptocurrency for payment?

We currently do not accept cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC) or Ethereum (ETH), however we are working on accepting these types of payments and hope to do so in the near future!

Your question not here?

Send us your question below and we will get back to you and consider adding it to our FAQ section in the future!