6 ms·

They calculated the costs based on 3 years running at the hourly rate. That's kinda weird. How about including multi-year discounts? These are available to eve

They calculated the costs based on 3 years running at the hourly rate. That's kinda weird. How about including multi-year discounts? These are available to everyone. [1] https://azure.microsoft.com/en-ca/pricing/reserved-vm-instances/ https://azure.microsoft.com/en-ca/pricing/reserved-vm-instan... [2] https://aws.amazon.com/ec2/pricing/reserved-instances/ https://aws.amazon.com/ec2/pricing/reserved-instances/ [3] https://cloud.google.com/compute/docs/instances/signing-up-committed-use-discounts https://cloud.google.com/compute/docs/instances/signing-up-c...

CoolGuySteve 7y ago
Yeah, and without comparing spot/interruptible prices, these results are meaningless for me.
- Scaevolus 7y ago
  You wouldn't typically run your database VMs on spot/interruptible instances.
  - alexnewman 7y ago
    why not? Just kidding, but it's getting more common :)
    - alexnewman 7y ago
      In distributed databases with appropriate grace under churn... Sorry I wasn't clear in my earlier post
  - scarface74 7y ago
    You wouldn’t typically run your databases in a cloud environment on your own VMs - you would use a managed service.
    - timc3 7y ago
      That depends on several factors. The database you might want to run may not be available for instance.
    - paulddraper 7y ago
      I'm still waiting on that managed PostgreSQL 12 service....
      - scarface74 7y ago
        Almost.... PostgreSQL 12.0 Now Available in Amazon RDS Database Preview Environment https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2019/11/postgresql-12-0-now-available-in-amazon-rds-database-preview-environment/ https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2019/11/postgresq...
    - mrits 7y ago
      I would never use a managed database service again.
      - scarface74 7y ago
        Well, plenty of people do...
      - matt2000 7y ago
        This sounds like the first line in a novel.
        IAmEveryone 7y ago
        Unfortunately, "Nor would I use cloud-based document storage" is the next, and last, sentence.
      - simula67 7y ago
        Why?
      - tedk-42 7y ago
  - joshvm 7y ago
    But you would run expensive machine learning jobs on them, and these (GPU instances) tend to offer more significant absolute savings when they're pre-emptible.
  - CoolGuySteve 7y ago
    Yeah but my database costs are a tiny sliver of my overall expenses and the instances will be located in whatever cloud provider hosts the rest of my infrastructure. How many people are running a cloud account with ONLY a cockroachdb in it? Your point seems pretty obtuse tbh.
derefr 7y ago
Elastic rates are really what you should be comparing when using cloud IaaS services, though. That's where the price works out in favor of using cloud IaaS hosts in the first place, after all. If you have a stable set of instances and a known lifetime for them, then, before trying to calculate whether AWS or GCP is cheaper, step back and plug those same numbers into a regular non-cloud DC managed-hardware-leasing pricing page.
- MuffinFlavored 7y ago
  What's an elastic rate?
  - devy 7y ago
    Pay-as-you-go rate - either by the minutes or by the hour.
  - dijit 7y ago
    The price without sustained use or commitment discounts. The raw cost of a compute unit for a random day/hour/minute.
- devy 7y ago
  > a regular non-cloud DC managed-hardware-leasing pricing You have to factor in the total cost of ownership (TCO) to make a fair comparison, which in almost ALL the cases, you are more than likely to overspend on bare metal boxes on your own DC. Some of the TCO components are: - DC staff salaries - Electricity - Networking bandwidth - SLA guarantee (yes this a hidden cost, e.g. if your DC power is out, you owe your customers fees depending on your SLA). - etc.
  - mehrdada 7y ago
    > - SLA guarantee (yes this a hidden cost, e.g. if your DC power is out, you owe your customers fees depending on your SLA). But Amazon and GCP can go down too and their SLA does not necessarily fully insure against your SLA.
paulddraper 7y ago
> That's kinda weird. Not really. On-demand capacity is (a) what the cloud is known for and (b) a reasonable common denominator. Reservations get a lot more complicated with policies around usage accounting and transferring and selling them. Obviously there is a lot more available than hourly VPS (reserved, interruptable), but that's a decent benchmark to start with.

CoolGuySteve 7y ago

Yeah, and without comparing spot/interruptible prices, these results are meaningless for me.

Scaevolus 7y ago
You wouldn't typically run your database VMs on spot/interruptible instances.
- alexnewman 7y ago
  why not? Just kidding, but it's getting more common :)
  - alexnewman 7y ago
    In distributed databases with appropriate grace under churn... Sorry I wasn't clear in my earlier post
- scarface74 7y ago
  You wouldn’t typically run your databases in a cloud environment on your own VMs - you would use a managed service.
  - timc3 7y ago
    That depends on several factors. The database you might want to run may not be available for instance.
  - paulddraper 7y ago
    I'm still waiting on that managed PostgreSQL 12 service....
    - scarface74 7y ago
      Almost.... PostgreSQL 12.0 Now Available in Amazon RDS Database Preview Environment https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2019/11/postgresql-12-0-now-available-in-amazon-rds-database-preview-environment/ https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2019/11/postgresq...
  - mrits 7y ago
    I would never use a managed database service again.
    - scarface74 7y ago
      Well, plenty of people do...
    - matt2000 7y ago
      This sounds like the first line in a novel.
      - IAmEveryone 7y ago
        Unfortunately, "Nor would I use cloud-based document storage" is the next, and last, sentence.
    - simula67 7y ago
      Why?
    - tedk-42 7y ago
- joshvm 7y ago
  But you would run expensive machine learning jobs on them, and these (GPU instances) tend to offer more significant absolute savings when they're pre-emptible.
- CoolGuySteve 7y ago
  Yeah but my database costs are a tiny sliver of my overall expenses and the instances will be located in whatever cloud provider hosts the rest of my infrastructure. How many people are running a cloud account with ONLY a cockroachdb in it? Your point seems pretty obtuse tbh.

derefr 7y ago

Elastic rates are really what you should be comparing when using cloud IaaS services, though. That's where the price works out in favor of using cloud IaaS hosts in the first place, after all. If you have a stable set of instances and a known lifetime for them, then, before trying to calculate whether AWS or GCP is cheaper, step back and plug those same numbers into a regular non-cloud DC managed-hardware-leasing pricing page.

MuffinFlavored 7y ago
What's an elastic rate?
- devy 7y ago
  Pay-as-you-go rate - either by the minutes or by the hour.
- dijit 7y ago
  The price without sustained use or commitment discounts. The raw cost of a compute unit for a random day/hour/minute.
devy 7y ago
> a regular non-cloud DC managed-hardware-leasing pricing You have to factor in the total cost of ownership (TCO) to make a fair comparison, which in almost ALL the cases, you are more than likely to overspend on bare metal boxes on your own DC. Some of the TCO components are: - DC staff salaries - Electricity - Networking bandwidth - SLA guarantee (yes this a hidden cost, e.g. if your DC power is out, you owe your customers fees depending on your SLA). - etc.
- mehrdada 7y ago
  > - SLA guarantee (yes this a hidden cost, e.g. if your DC power is out, you owe your customers fees depending on your SLA). But Amazon and GCP can go down too and their SLA does not necessarily fully insure against your SLA.

paulddraper 7y ago

> That's kinda weird. Not really. On-demand capacity is (a) what the cloud is known for and (b) a reasonable common denominator. Reservations get a lot more complicated with policies around usage accounting and transferring and selling them. Obviously there is a lot more available than hourly VPS (reserved, interruptable), but that's a decent benchmark to start with.