I think we are agreeing here, we're just phrasing it differently. I didn't mean to imply there was a direct cost comparison; just that part of your payment is f

I think we are agreeing here, we're just phrasing it differently. I didn't mean to imply there was a direct cost comparison; just that part of your payment is for them to fund someone's paycheck. In the grand scheme of things it's definitely cheaper to maintain a high ratio of machines-under-maintenance to systems administrators. That being said, the difference is Amazon pays an administrator to watch potentially thousands of machines of which you may be using a tiny fraction. You're essentially paying for a very tiny fraction of an admin's time (somewhere) who isn't vested in your business nor does he care that your site is acting wonky. He's just answering and working through tickets (if you bought support). Cloud providers can be come markedly less helpful the instant you (attempt to) deviate from the very carefully maintained cookie-cutter pattern they've set out for you.