(co-founder here) Of course your perspective on DigigalOcean is valid but we think of it simply as a good philosophy to deliver a VM to a user in a seamless, straightforward way - that's the part that we want achieve and let users to self-host. Essentially, you could build your own DigitalOcean using VirtKick. Does it make sense for you? Doesn't mean you should rush and start your own business .. you can run it privately for your own needs or for your company's needs.