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Thursday, March 27, 2014

Google brings cloud to the new elasticity levels with sustained usage discounts

Google announced their new Compute Engine pricing. While virtually everybody is focusing on significant price reductions, more important is their new model of sustained use discounts. Seems innocent but this might be complete game changer in the market.

Up until now, virtually everyone who planned to host application in any cloud had to make very basic decision – should I commit for long-term usage or go with on-demand servers. This could be reserved instances in case of AWS or longer period subscriptions in case of other providers. In either case, you had to think how you expect your future usage would look like. Therefore, while you had simplicity of consumption-based billing for on-demand prices, you still had to plan upfront to achieve greater cost optimization on expense of risk that predictions were wrong causing additional costs. This in turn was spoiling the perfect image of pay-what-you-use premise.

The first change came from AWS when it introduced Reserved Instance Marketplace over a year ago. It enabled users to sell their reservations in case predictions turned out to be invalid. This definitely improved the situation but still the risk of finding buyer was on the client, letting alone the 12% fee and sadly limitation to US customers only. Later there were further improvements of moving reservations between availability zones as well as changing instance types of a reservation within the same family. It got even better but still not yet where we all wanted to be.

Google is the first one to make it no-brainer for customers but still encourage predictable workloads. You just use on-demand servers. However, as soon as your server is run 25% of the time, a discount is applied. Then further with 50% and 75%. So the closer you get to the permanent usage, the cheaper it gets. Without any planning. Just based on actual usage. Like a self-cost-optimization plan. This is Google that takes the risk of usage predictability, not you.



This is not so noticed but amazing step of even easier usage of cloud services, bringing cloud elasticity to completely new level. I’m extremely excited to see what will be the response of other cloud services. I hope it is going to settle new standard that others would follow, making things even simpler.

Tuesday, July 2, 2013

How Google have lost opportunity to get millions of Google+ users


Google Reader is gone now. Millions of frustrated users found their new home in Feedly, The Old Reader, Digg and more. The millions that could have become active part of the service that Google seems to care the most now – Google+. How? Obviously, very easy.

RSS is a stream of information you are interested in, therefore you start to follow it. You subscribe to a number of such sources and finally read a stream of it. Now, if you think about social networks, Google+ in particular, you start to follow people you are interested in and start to read their posts (OK, obviously you interact with them as well, but let us leave it for now). Hmmm, something sounds similar here …

So, what should have Google done? I guess you already know. If you could add RSS to circles, if you could automatically migrate all your Reader feeds to a RSS circle and read your favorite feeds directly in the Google Plus stream, would you do it? I would. I don’t care if I read my feeds in Reader or Google Plus. I just want that content.  Once I started reading the Google Plus stream, quite likely I would start sharing and become active Google Plus user.  I would but I will not.  I guess substantial part of the Reader users would


Probably Google hoped to see the users changing their habits to the more modern, social ones. But seems like the Reader crowd are just old dogs who do not learn new tricks. Apparently, I am an old dog. Regardless, I’ve read only about various RSS services breaking down under unexpected gift from Google, never about huge shift to Plus.

Google could have gained substantial part that Reader crowd to Google Plus. They could have had me looking into Google Plus many times every day. Instead, I feel left out without migration path, I’m now a user of a different RSS reader service and Google is where it was with its Plus service. Sorry Google.

Monday, November 12, 2012

AWS prices in Australia compared

With the new Amazon Web Services region opened in Australia there were some comments on Twitter and even articles about higher prices than US. While apparently Australia is struggling with high services prices, the launch of the AWS region should be looked in a slightly wider context than comparison to US.

While prices in Australia are higher than US, it is somewhere in the middle for international AWS prices. EC2 and EBS prices are at the same level as Europe and Singapore, while Japan and Brazil and even US West (California) are more expensive. Transfer starts to be cheaper in Singapore only above 10TB, though here both US and EU are cheaper. S3 storage cost is at the level of US West (California), where only Brazil is more expensive. Overall Australian AWS prices are still in the middle of international AWS regions, while definitely not at the US East level.

But what is probably more important is how AWS compares to other cloud providers in Australia. Australia unfortunately does not have a huge number cloud providers available. By far the most known Australian provider is Ninefold, but there also others available –  OpSource and VPS.NET has their international locations in Australia. There are also other local providers available, like OrionVM or CloudPeople. Unfortunately the last two are not yet supported by Cloudorado, so I’ll focus on current four.

To check how does AWS compare, we will make some sample configurations to check how they compare between providers.

Note: all prices in US dollars.

1.    Standard Small
The first shot for equivalent of Standard Small, which is 1.7 GB RAM and 1 ECU CPU. As in most cases persistence storage is used, we will take 50 GB EBS storage (I/O won’t be estimated here). In such case AWS in fact provides the best option offer. (link to calculation)


2.    Standard Small with twice the CPU
According to our benchmarks, it looks like competition gives stronger CPUs for similar size. The second test assumes twice the CPU power from the first test, with rest or parameters unchanged. Surprisingly – AWS from the lead position goes to the third, with Ninefold and OpSource at virtually the same level. (link to calculation)


3.    Standard Small with 2 TB traffic
The last test assumes again Standard Small equivalent, but this time with a lot of traffic – 2 TB. This time VPS.NET has the price of less than half of AWS price. (link to calculation)



It must be said that the prices of AWS in Australia are in general very competitive. When you play around, AWS is often at the top of the list. It is much, much more often than for other regions. But in all regions the same is true – when considering cloud provider, you should carefully compare cloud computing providers. Depending on your specific requirements like resource ratio, transfer or acceptable commitment duration completely different provider might be best choice. Cloudorado make it very easy to perform such individual comparisons.

Monday, September 24, 2012

A new cloud computing provider for comparison – Stratogen


It has been a while since last noticeable update to the service. We are working hard to deliver you the next version of the service, which will allow you to do even more cloud provider comparisons to support you with data-driven decisions. So keep your eye on Cloudorado. Meanwhile we have added a new provider.

Stratogen is a cloud computing provider based on VM Ware vCloud Director, which makes it perfect if you want to move servers from your VM Ware-based data center to the cloud. It is as easy as exporting OVF and importing it to Stratogen.

Stratogen cloud servers are hosted in tier 3 data centers in both US and UK which also have ISO27001 certification. Stratogen is strongly focusing on network, providing 100% SLA, 10 Gb N+N redundancy. It is using Cisco infrastructure. On top of that, the internet transfer is for free, which makes it an interesting option for network-intensive solutions. Servers are equipped with Intel E5, which delivers a lot of power to your cloud servers.

There is both monthly and hourly pricing available which you can mix depending on your needs. And on top of that there is a 7 day trial period with a generous quota so you can really feel the power of the cloud. And if it wasn’t enough, there is still 30 day money back guarantee. So you have no risk to try it.

So, as usually – compare cloud computing providers and check if Stratogen is the perfect match for your needs.

Thursday, April 5, 2012

Two new cloud computing providers: E24Cloud and Ninefold

E24Cloud is a European cloud computing provider with a unique offer of completely free transfer without any limits. While we already got used to free incoming transfer, outgoing was never free, at least not without limits. Seems like it might be great option for bandwidth intensive applications. Moreover there is also possibility to create very big servers, up to 64 GB RAM and 32 cores. So far only 4 providers in our service had so big servers available.

The second provider doubled our list of providers in Australia. Ninefold is probably the best known Australian cloud computing provider. They provide not only cloud servers but also storage solutions.

Maybe our new providers will provide the best offer for you. Check this and compare cloud computing providers.

Monday, March 19, 2012

Time To Reevaluate Reserved Instances

With the latest Amazon Web Services price list update one important aspect has been lost in the whole buzz about dropping cloud prices – the profit point between on-demand and reserved instances has moved significantly. Therefore you should reevaluate reserved instances if you are using on-demand now, or check if you are still using the best suiting reservation option.

It hasn’t been said directly but the clue was in the Amazon’s postReserved Instance prices dropping by as much as 37%, and On-Demand instance prices dropping up to 10%”. The relation between on-demand and reserved instance prices was not kept and it means the switch point between them has moved as well.

The point when it is more cost effective to use reserved instances differs between instance types but in general it was about 30% utilization during one year reservation period, which is equivalent to 2630 hours. For standard and high CPU instances it was 31.8% (2786 hours), while 29.2% (2559 hours) for high memory instances. These are the points where you should switch from on-demand to one year light reserved instances in US East

With the new price lists the most affected were standard and high memory instances. The profitability point of the standard reserved instances moved from 31.8% to 19.2% (1683 hours). For high memory instances the change was from 29.2% to 17.5% (1535 hours). High CPU instances had just minor update from 31.8% to 31.3%. Cluster compute and GPU instances did not change the relation, but keep in mind Cluster Compute Eight Extra Large is still the winner with just 13.4% utilization (1178 hours) for the light reserved instance to be profitable. The profitability points for other types of reservations also changed but not that much. The maximum is from 76.9% to 65.2% for high memory medium utilization reserved instance. The heavy utilization changed by 2% at most.

The graph shows the change for High Memory XXL. The upper part shows price of various reservation types according to utilization with previous price list, the lower with current price list. The green areas indicate change of best reservation option – either from on-demand to light reserved instances or to higher reservation option.

But what does it mean to me? If you were below the threshold so far and you use on-demand instances, you should definitely check if now it isn’t cheaper to take light reserved ones. If your server runs for more than 4 hours 12 minutes a day – check reserved instances. If you know your server will run at least 2 months and 1 week all the time, you are again in the reserved instances zone. Similarly for 9 months of 8 hours per business day, or any other pattern in which you would exceed the required number of computing hours. Similarly you should also check if a higher reservation wouldn’t provide a better deal. If you use the cloud computing comparison engine, it will tell if and which reservation is most appropriate in a given case.

To get maximum of the cloud economics you should always check if you use the best option. Currently many users will find profitable to either switch from on-demand to light reserved instances or going to higher reservation level. Check if you are one of them.


Profitability points for 1 year reservations in US East:

Light Reservation
Medium  Reservation
Heavy Reservation
Old
New
Old
New
Old
New
Standard
31.8%
2,786h
19.2%
1,683h
74.2%
6,500h
69,3%
6,067h
85.2%
7,466h
83.3%
7,299h
High Memory 29.2%
2,559h
17.5%
1,535h
76.9%
6,740h
65.2%
5,713h
85.2%
7,467h
81.6%
7,150h
High CPU 31.8%
2,786h
31.3%
2,739h
74.2%
6,500h
67.6%
5,925h
85.3%
7,474h
82.8%
7,257h
Cluster Compute Quadruple XL 29.7%
2,599h
29.7%
2,599h
71.8%
6,288h
71.8%
6,288h
85.6%
7,502h
85.6%
7,502h
Cluster Compute Eight XL 13.4%
1,178h
13.4%
1,178h
74.8%
6,550h
74.8%
6,550h
84.9%
7,438h
84.9%
7,438h
Cluster GPU Quadruple XL 31.8%
2,783h
31.8%
2,783h
74.4%
6,519h
74.4%
6,519h
85.3%
7,470h
85.3%
7,470h

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Two cloudy days in London

London is definitely one of the cloudiest places in the world. But one week it was even cloudier. There were two cloud events which I attended to – Cloud Expo Europe and CloudCamp.

Cloud Expo Europe is a two-day trade show which took place in Olympia National Hall on January 25-26. This is probably the biggest purely cloud event in Europe. There were about 100 exhibitors and 7 theaters with total of 130 speakers. Not so surprisingly the subject of cloud provider selection was topic of at least 3 talks. Moreover there was significant number of people visiting those talks. This shows how important aspect has been addressed by Cloudorado. One major inconvenience was virtually lack of any sound barrier between exhibit hall and speak theaters. They were just separated by walls as other stands so the noise from exhibit part was definitely disturbing. But this obviously does not lower any value of the speeches themselves.

The show was also a great opportunity to meet multiple people and companies involved in cloud computing. But Cloud Camp, which was held in the evening of the first day in Clerkenwell was a great opportunity meet the cloud computing community and “celebrities” in an informal atmosphere. It starts with a number of 5 minute lightning speeches where many different subjects are virtually just flashed out for further expansion later. The next part is in form of a panel, where anyone can ask a question to experts who were selected from the attendees. So, as there are virtually all involved in cloud computing virtually anyone could speak out their opinions on many cloud related subject. And finally, the most informal part – pizza, beer and talk to anyone.

It was great both events had synchronized schedules so that you can participate in both during a single visit. It is really a great opportunity get in touch with the cloud. I’ll definitely be back next time.