> Before, when a company provided Xen or Kvm, you generally would get to have low-level access such as the ability to virtually connect to a serial port or vnc session of your box as it booted. You also, typically, could provide your own ISO images.

It's remarkable that you start your sentence with "before". As a prgmr.com user, I can still get an out-of-the-band console and run my own kernel without any fanfare. (no affiliation at all, just a happy user)