First off we're talking about AWS, not on-premises. Second, if we were talking on-premises, you can get into a NetApp controller for FAR less than $40k a year,

First off we're talking about AWS, not on-premises. Second, if we were talking on-premises, you can get into a NetApp controller for FAR less than $40k a year, but that's not really relevant to OP. There are two options in AWS: one where you get an entire virtual storage system to yourself but also need to have some NetApp expertise (although less than on-premises). You can find pricing here: https://cloud.netapp.com/pricing https://cloud.netapp.com/pricing And one where you just consume the NFS/SMB shares more akin to EFS (pricing at the bottom of the page): https://cloud.netapp.com/cloud-volumes-service-for-aws https://cloud.netapp.com/cloud-volumes-service-for-aws In both instances you can get better pricing than what is on that page by working with a partner, but if you don't want to you can buy directly through AWS and pay a slight premium.