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Amazon isn't really budget. The free tier is nice, and the tiny instances are priced ok, but beyond that they're quite expensive for a VPs. The nice thing with

by pieter 15y ago

Amazon isn't really budget. The free tier is nice, and the tiny instances are priced ok, but beyond that they're quite expensive for a VPs. The nice thing with AWS is the scaling and the supporting infrastructure, but you do pay for that compared to more basic VPS offerings.

ridruejo 15y ago
Well, if we are talking about bigger instances, then it is not "budget VPS" anymore either :) Still, depending on your needs (and specially if you combine with reserved instances, which can drive the cost 50%) it can be quite cost-effective
sathyabhat 15y ago
Yeah, and not to forget, the free tier offer expires in November
- ntoshev 15y ago
  I believe it expires an year after you started using it. Do you have a reference saying it won't be available for anyone after November 2011?
  - sathyabhat 15y ago
    Ah, you're right, my bad. Relevant part of the terms: These free tiers are only available to new AWS customers and are available for 12 months following your AWS sign-up date
rkalla 15y ago
Just a reminder to everyone that prices out the flat On-Demand rates of Amazon, a 3-year reserved instance price is 48% cheaper than OnDemand. So if you know what your deployment needs are, take the On-Demand price and roughly divide it in half for your real cost-per-month (with a majority paid up front). If you don't know what kind of deployment you need, then yes, running everything on-demand can be pricey compared to alternatives.
- ridruejo 15y ago
  In addition to reserved instances, there are a couple of other ways you can achieve cost-savings for common situations. If you need to run background tasks (like video encoding, reports, etc) you can try running spot instances at a fraction of the cost of an on-demand instance. You run the risk that the instance is terminated, but you can always spawn a new one without affecting the main service, since basically you do not care if the task finishes a couple of minutes later. Another one is scaling up and down base on demand. If you run, say, a SugarCRM instance for your sales team, you can have it run in a Large instance during the week, 9-5pm, when it is going to be in full use by multiple people. Then, the rest of the time you can scale down to a small or micro instance. It is still going to be available, but at a smaller cost.
- sorenbs 15y ago
  Is that a fixed price for the next 3 years then? I would expect normal prices to at least be cut in half 3 years from now as hardware gets cheaper.
  - ridruejo 15y ago
    You pay a fixed price for the reservation and then per-usage fees. Usage fees will drop as Amazon reduces them, but the reservation is a one-time deal

by pieter 15y ago

ridruejo 15y ago

Well, if we are talking about bigger instances, then it is not "budget VPS" anymore either :) Still, depending on your needs (and specially if you combine with reserved instances, which can drive the cost 50%) it can be quite cost-effective

sathyabhat 15y ago

Yeah, and not to forget, the free tier offer expires in November

ntoshev 15y ago
I believe it expires an year after you started using it. Do you have a reference saying it won't be available for anyone after November 2011?
- sathyabhat 15y ago
  Ah, you're right, my bad. Relevant part of the terms: These free tiers are only available to new AWS customers and are available for 12 months following your AWS sign-up date

rkalla 15y ago

Just a reminder to everyone that prices out the flat On-Demand rates of Amazon, a 3-year reserved instance price is 48% cheaper than OnDemand. So if you know what your deployment needs are, take the On-Demand price and roughly divide it in half for your real cost-per-month (with a majority paid up front). If you don't know what kind of deployment you need, then yes, running everything on-demand can be pricey compared to alternatives.

ridruejo 15y ago
In addition to reserved instances, there are a couple of other ways you can achieve cost-savings for common situations. If you need to run background tasks (like video encoding, reports, etc) you can try running spot instances at a fraction of the cost of an on-demand instance. You run the risk that the instance is terminated, but you can always spawn a new one without affecting the main service, since basically you do not care if the task finishes a couple of minutes later. Another one is scaling up and down base on demand. If you run, say, a SugarCRM instance for your sales team, you can have it run in a Large instance during the week, 9-5pm, when it is going to be in full use by multiple people. Then, the rest of the time you can scale down to a small or micro instance. It is still going to be available, but at a smaller cost.
sorenbs 15y ago
Is that a fixed price for the next 3 years then? I would expect normal prices to at least be cut in half 3 years from now as hardware gets cheaper.
- ridruejo 15y ago
  You pay a fixed price for the reservation and then per-usage fees. Usage fees will drop as Amazon reduces them, but the reservation is a one-time deal