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They have to use Amazon's VPC service - AWS has a 'secure' vpc service where you don't share the server with other customers which is a requirement for HIPAA co
by comrade1 11y ago
They have to use Amazon's VPC service - AWS has a 'secure' vpc service where you don't share the server with other customers which is a requirement for HIPAA compliance. That service gets really pricey.
I run a similar service but for SMS messaging that is 21cfr11 compliant. We rent a 1/4 rack with our own door/lock and throw in pretty much disposable servers as needed. It's much cheaper than doing the equivalent on AWS, and it's not that difficult to set up your own secure servers once you have a few recipes to follow.
We started it about 9 years ago before a secure service with amazon existed. Every year or two I price alternative solutions like AWS's secure service, VPCs, etc and it's always cheaper even taking account my labor to stick with our 1/4 closet. In fact, it seems they base their costs on the going rate for rack space, plus a premium for using the convenience of using their servers.
Oh, and it's funny - we have almost the same number of users and we're processing more messages per month than them, all on a old-fashioned webserver-appserver-dataserver arrangement - three servers (with fallover redunandancy not counted) and it's barely breaking a sweat.
- count 11y agoYou dramatically misunderstand VPC. Everybody on AWS today uses VPC, unless you happened to be grandfathered in to EC2 'classic'. There is NO COST to using VPC (aside from admin over head maybe?). It's a huge security upgrade, as it gives you the ability to isolate things much better. The specifics of HIPAA/HITECH compliance on AWS are available under their BAA (which is confidential), and do require some things that cost more money. VPC is not one of them. If you have only a quarter rack of servers and want the minimum s for physical security, yeah, you can probably make that work cheaper than AWS. When you have a whole datacenter worth of gear and now need a more sophisticated security / entry system, etc. the argument becomes much closer. With that said, you misunderstanding how VPC works and what it is makes me wonder if your pricing is coming out right: it's really complicated to price out a full AWS cost, just as much as to price out your own costs.
- krallin 11y agoGP is most likely referring to VPCs with dedicated tenancy. Those are not free, and they're pricey [0]. [0]: http://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonVPC/latest/UserGuide/dedicated-instance.html
- rubiquity 11y agoGP is refeerring to the dedicated instance requirement of having a BAA with AWS. It costs $2 per hour per region on top of your existing server costs.
- comrade1 11y agoSorry. Meant vps.