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Pricing is yet another area where Google Compute Engine is superior. Automatic sustained use discounts[1], the ability to commit long term to a certain amount o

Pricing is yet another area where Google Compute Engine is superior. Automatic sustained use discounts[1], the ability to commit long term to a certain amount of cpus and memory and get a discount without any upfront cost[2]. Extended memory[3], basically you can craft a VM instance of any size. Need just 1 cpu but 32 GB of memory, no problem. AWS on the other hand... A labyrinth of pricing tables, spot instances, EBS optimized, enhanced networking... Complexity. [1] - https://cloud.google.com/compute/docs/sustained-use-discounts https://cloud.google.com/compute/docs/sustained-use-discount... [2] - https://cloud.google.com/compute/docs/instances/signing-up-committed-use-discounts https://cloud.google.com/compute/docs/instances/signing-up-c... [3] - https://cloudplatform.googleblog.com/2017/05/Compute-Engine-updates-bring-Skylake-GA-Extended-Memory-and-more-VM-flexibility.html https://cloudplatform.googleblog.com/2017/05/Compute-Engine-...

Cidan 9y ago
Came here to post this -- moving our infra from AWS to GCP was the best decision I've ever made.
zjfroot 9y ago
Google Cloud maybe is superior in the pricing of compute, but it is actually more expensive on network egress traffic, object storage and block storage. I recently created a simple tool (http://theprice.cloud/ http://theprice.cloud/) to compare egress traffic, object storage, and block storage cost among AWS, Google Cloud and Azure. It seems like Googel Cloud is the most expensive one in egress traffic and object storage.
- nodesocket 9y ago
  Except that Google Cloud cross zone and cross region (US) prices are much less than AWS. Ingress Free Egress inner-zone Free Egress cross-zone in the same region $0.01 Egress cross-region within the US $0.01 See: https://blog.elasticbyte.net/comparing-bandwidth-prices-and-network-latency-between-google-compute-zones-and-regions/ https://blog.elasticbyte.net/comparing-bandwidth-prices-and-...
  - rpedela 9y ago
    They seem pretty comparable to me? Cross-region is $0.02, inner-zone is free, and cross-zone is free or $0.01. https://aws.amazon.com/ec2/pricing/on-demand/ https://aws.amazon.com/ec2/pricing/on-demand/
    - nodesocket 9y ago
      I could have sworn AWS prices cross-zone used to be higher maybe this changed recently. Or... I was just wrong. :-)
      - boulos 9y ago
        Don't feel bad, I'd forgotten this one: "Using a public or Elastic IPv4 address => $0.01 per GB". I'm sad we still don't have a proper split horizon DNS to encourage internal IP usage, but I can't imagine charging for it in the same zone.
    - ahazred8ta 9y ago
      TL;DR: Starting at - $3.69/GB/mo (US), US$4.11/GB/mo (Ireland), assuming reserved instances with 1yr All Upfront pricing, not counting the really huge xlarge+SSD instances.
  - jacquesm 9y ago
    Which is its own form of complexity. All these cloud offerings are priced so complex you can pretty much expect some nasty gotcha unless you spend an inordinate amount of time modeling your workload and traffic patterns. And if something changes you can do it all over again.
- boulos 9y ago
  Our egress pricing (from all sources) is certainly higher because we operate a private backbone rather than just dumping your packets straight onto the internet. Your site seems to be hugged to death (so I can't see it), but there are lots of gotchas with S3 pricing (like rounding up file sizes with Infrequent Access and Glacier) that in our experience means our customers come out ahead. Glacier and Coldline also aren't really comparable in the sense that GCS always responds within milliseconds. We only economics to discourage frequent access from Coldline, not delays. As above, our egress is more expensive because it's better (we hear you though if your response is "I don't care! Give me cheaper instead, then!"). Disclosure: I work on Google Cloud.
  - rpedela 9y ago
    AWS also has their own backbone. Starting at about 7 min: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bqPfQgatMko https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bqPfQgatMko
    - vgt 9y ago
      Google's backbone is a little bit different. Google Cloud shares this backbone with Youtube, Maps, and the rest. Not only are there DC-to-DC cables, our backbone extends to a vast number of Edge POPS (more than AWS and Azure combined), detailed at [0]. Our DC-to-DC network is pretty great too, allowing things like Spanner to exist (minimizing P in CAP etc) at [1]. Here's what it means for you in practice: - Google's Load Balancer supports a single global anycast endpoint. - When your packet tries to hit Google network, it hits the nearest POP, which acts as an on-ramp to the network and traverses only Google network, not touching public. - Similarly, when data is en route to a customer, Google network will take it all the way to the nearest DC or POP on its private backbone. - Google by default gives you a global software-defined VPC. No need to create VPN tunnels between zones/regions/etc. (work at G) [0] https://peering.google.com/#/infrastructure https://peering.google.com/#/infrastructure [1] https://cloudplatform.googleblog.com/2017/02/inside-Cloud-Spanner-and-the-CAP-Theorem.html https://cloudplatform.googleblog.com/2017/02/inside-Cloud-Sp...
      - 9y ago
- zjfroot 9y ago
  WOW, this is my first time getting "slashdotted". Very surprised to see the enthusiasm. The original "Show HN" is here https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14582181 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14582181, and you are welcomed to continue the discussion there
  - chuckdries 9y ago
    Lol I'm new, what's getting "slash dotted?"
    - joshmn 9y ago
      > When an internet server or item is shut down, canceled, closed or crashes because of the instant popularity from a community. But if you're wondering what the word comes from, slashdot.org
electic 9y ago
One thing I would like to add is also the fact that they give you tips on under utilized instances and how much you can save per month. They really go the extra mile to make sure you are paying for what you are truly using and not paying for idling hardware.
lwansbrough 9y ago
Worth mentioning that while Azure doesn't automatically provide the same sustained use discounts (MS' model is more similar to AWS') - Azure is considerably cheaper than either GCE or AWS for various configurations (but not all.) I don't have a source handy at the moment. Please correct me if my knowledge is out dated a I haven't done a comparison myself recently.
mark_l_watson 9y ago
I agree. While I think AWS is great, and I will happily use it if that is what my customers want, I think that GCP wins on price. Having Diane Green in charge of GCP is an indication that developing GCP as a business is a high priority.

Cidan 9y ago

Came here to post this -- moving our infra from AWS to GCP was the best decision I've ever made.

zjfroot 9y ago

Google Cloud maybe is superior in the pricing of compute, but it is actually more expensive on network egress traffic, object storage and block storage. I recently created a simple tool (http://theprice.cloud/ http://theprice.cloud/) to compare egress traffic, object storage, and block storage cost among AWS, Google Cloud and Azure. It seems like Googel Cloud is the most expensive one in egress traffic and object storage.

nodesocket 9y ago
Except that Google Cloud cross zone and cross region (US) prices are much less than AWS. Ingress Free Egress inner-zone Free Egress cross-zone in the same region $0.01 Egress cross-region within the US $0.01 See: https://blog.elasticbyte.net/comparing-bandwidth-prices-and-network-latency-between-google-compute-zones-and-regions/ https://blog.elasticbyte.net/comparing-bandwidth-prices-and-...
- rpedela 9y ago
  They seem pretty comparable to me? Cross-region is $0.02, inner-zone is free, and cross-zone is free or $0.01. https://aws.amazon.com/ec2/pricing/on-demand/ https://aws.amazon.com/ec2/pricing/on-demand/
  - nodesocket 9y ago
    I could have sworn AWS prices cross-zone used to be higher maybe this changed recently. Or... I was just wrong. :-)
    - boulos 9y ago
      Don't feel bad, I'd forgotten this one: "Using a public or Elastic IPv4 address => $0.01 per GB". I'm sad we still don't have a proper split horizon DNS to encourage internal IP usage, but I can't imagine charging for it in the same zone.
  - ahazred8ta 9y ago
    TL;DR: Starting at - $3.69/GB/mo (US), US$4.11/GB/mo (Ireland), assuming reserved instances with 1yr All Upfront pricing, not counting the really huge xlarge+SSD instances.
- jacquesm 9y ago
  Which is its own form of complexity. All these cloud offerings are priced so complex you can pretty much expect some nasty gotcha unless you spend an inordinate amount of time modeling your workload and traffic patterns. And if something changes you can do it all over again.
boulos 9y ago
Our egress pricing (from all sources) is certainly higher because we operate a private backbone rather than just dumping your packets straight onto the internet. Your site seems to be hugged to death (so I can't see it), but there are lots of gotchas with S3 pricing (like rounding up file sizes with Infrequent Access and Glacier) that in our experience means our customers come out ahead. Glacier and Coldline also aren't really comparable in the sense that GCS always responds within milliseconds. We only economics to discourage frequent access from Coldline, not delays. As above, our egress is more expensive because it's better (we hear you though if your response is "I don't care! Give me cheaper instead, then!"). Disclosure: I work on Google Cloud.
- rpedela 9y ago
  AWS also has their own backbone. Starting at about 7 min: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bqPfQgatMko https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bqPfQgatMko
  - vgt 9y ago
    Google's backbone is a little bit different. Google Cloud shares this backbone with Youtube, Maps, and the rest. Not only are there DC-to-DC cables, our backbone extends to a vast number of Edge POPS (more than AWS and Azure combined), detailed at [0]. Our DC-to-DC network is pretty great too, allowing things like Spanner to exist (minimizing P in CAP etc) at [1]. Here's what it means for you in practice: - Google's Load Balancer supports a single global anycast endpoint. - When your packet tries to hit Google network, it hits the nearest POP, which acts as an on-ramp to the network and traverses only Google network, not touching public. - Similarly, when data is en route to a customer, Google network will take it all the way to the nearest DC or POP on its private backbone. - Google by default gives you a global software-defined VPC. No need to create VPN tunnels between zones/regions/etc. (work at G) [0] https://peering.google.com/#/infrastructure https://peering.google.com/#/infrastructure [1] https://cloudplatform.googleblog.com/2017/02/inside-Cloud-Spanner-and-the-CAP-Theorem.html https://cloudplatform.googleblog.com/2017/02/inside-Cloud-Sp...
    - 9y ago
zjfroot 9y ago
WOW, this is my first time getting "slashdotted". Very surprised to see the enthusiasm. The original "Show HN" is here https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14582181 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14582181, and you are welcomed to continue the discussion there
- chuckdries 9y ago
  Lol I'm new, what's getting "slash dotted?"
  - joshmn 9y ago
    > When an internet server or item is shut down, canceled, closed or crashes because of the instant popularity from a community. But if you're wondering what the word comes from, slashdot.org

electic 9y ago

One thing I would like to add is also the fact that they give you tips on under utilized instances and how much you can save per month. They really go the extra mile to make sure you are paying for what you are truly using and not paying for idling hardware.

lwansbrough 9y ago

Worth mentioning that while Azure doesn't automatically provide the same sustained use discounts (MS' model is more similar to AWS') - Azure is considerably cheaper than either GCE or AWS for various configurations (but not all.) I don't have a source handy at the moment. Please correct me if my knowledge is out dated a I haven't done a comparison myself recently.

mark_l_watson 9y ago

I agree. While I think AWS is great, and I will happily use it if that is what my customers want, I think that GCP wins on price. Having Diane Green in charge of GCP is an indication that developing GCP as a business is a high priority.