Cost analysis

[Andrew Bruno]

Hi all,

I am trying to do a cost analysis of using Amazon, compared to
http://www.rosehosting.com/virtserv-spec.html?src=goovps

Can I set up an amazon instance for about $15 per month? i.e.

15GB hard disk
300 GB bandwidth
512MB ram

I have been using rosehosting.com for about 9 years, with no problems,
but was wondering whether Amazon was a viable option commercially?

Basically, I need to setup a new VPS in order to use Magento & Joomla.

Any feedback, etc.. appreciated

Cheers
Andrew

[Mark Bate]

Hi Andrew,

I was costing EC2 for a blog / personal projects server last week, so figured I could pass on some of the info.
I'm assuming seeing as you've been with them for 9yrs, that you'll be looking for more long term stuff (>6 months)?
If so, you should probably look at reserved instances, which brings down the price quite a bit (http://aws.amazon.com/ec2/#pricing).

Based on the specs you provided, you're probably looking at a standard small instance (m1.small).
That'll give you: 1.7GB RAM, 1 EC2 Compute Unit (1 virtual core, ~1.0-1.2GHz Opteron), 160GB local storage, 32-bit platform.
see: http://aws.amazon.com/ec2/#instance

I've only costed the Nth. Virginia (US East) region, as it's the cheapest.
If you pay a reservation fee of $227.50 for years or $350 for 3 years, you can get Linux nodes for $0.03/hr & Windows for $0.05/hr, instead of $0.085/hr & $0.12/hr.

This brings it down to $21.90/month (excluding the yearly fee) for a small Linux node & $36.50/month for a Windows one.
If you go with the 1yr reservation, then it breaks down to $40.86/month for Linux, $55.46/month for Windows.
If you go with the 3yr reservation, then it breaks down to $31.62/month for Linux, $46.22/month for Windows.

Note: those costs don't include bandwidth.
Transfer in is currently free until Nov 1, 2010, after which point it'll be $0.10/GB.
Transfer out is free for the first GB, after that it's $0.15/GB up until 10TB (there are other tier levels there).

I'm also not sure if those instance costs are only for S3 nodes?? you may have to pay more if you use EBS backed instances ($0.10/GB/mo + $0.10/1 million I/O requests).

You may also want to look at CloudWatch monitoring there, which is $0.015/instance/hr.

As you can see, things seem to add up pretty fast.
I'm not sure how well EC2 suits a single server site (not sure I'd use it for a blog), but if you're running a site with a decent amount of traffic, that needs to scale back & forth depending on load, then it's pretty nice to have AutoScaling scale stuff for you. You also only pay for those extra servers when you use them.

Hope that helps.

thanks,
mark

[Andrew Bruno]

Thanks Mark, really appreciate you sharing your knowledge in this.

So basically, if I want a bare bones VPS, already setup with minimal
fuss, the rosehosting is the way to go. Price is capped, and I get
plenty of bandwidth.

BUT

If I try and go the other way, i.e. 1.7GB RAM vs 512MB and 160GB vs
15GB then EC2 offers a lot more bang.

Definately something to think about.

Thanks
Andrew

[Mark Bate]

On 30/08/2010, at 5:48 PM, Andrew Bruno wrote:

> Thanks Mark, really appreciate you sharing your knowledge in this.

No worries ;p

>
> So basically, if I want a bare bones VPS, already setup with minimal
> fuss, the rosehosting is the way to go. Price is capped, and I get
> plenty of bandwidth.
>
> BUT
>
> If I try and go the other way, i.e. 1.7GB RAM vs 512MB and 160GB vs
> 15GB then EC2 offers a lot more bang.
>
> Definately something to think about.

Yeah, not sure it's the best thing if you're just starting out a website (unless you've spent a lot of money / effort on hyping it), but once you get a decent following, it's definitely worth a look.

Also, if you're running S3 based instances I wouldn't rely on that 160GB for anything serious (think of it more as scratch).
S3 nodes aren't persistent, so once they go down (either killed by you, or on rare occasion AWS fault), you lose everything.
EBS nodes are a bit better there, as (unless you change the default behaviour) shutting down a node will stop it rather than terminate it.
The instance can then be restarted again & all data will be there.

There are benefits to each type of storage though, especially if you're using them for stuff other than instances.
EBS is like a hard drive; it's persistent, you can swap volumes between instances, you can even hook up multiple volumes & RAID them.
S3 is highly redundant (99.999999999% - if you store 10K objects, you may lose 1 every million years); so it's good for backups, even if you're not using EC2.

thanks,
mark

[Mark Bate]

Hi Andrew,

Just a heads up, AWS announced their micro instances yesterday, which makes things pretty interesting.

http://aws.typepad.com/aws/2010/09/new-amazon-ec2-micro-instances.html

They're designed for lower throughput apps / sites & for $0.02/hr you get:

Micro Instance

613 MB memory
Up to 2 EC2 Compute Units (for short periodic bursts)
EBS storage only
32-bit or 64-bit platform
I/O Performance: Low
API name: t1.micro

Or you can reserve an instance for $54 for 1yr or $82 for 3yrs & bring the instance cost down to $0.007/hr.

730.5 (mean) hours in a month x $0.007 per hour = $5.11 per month for running

$54 yearly reservation / 12 months = $4.50 monthly reservation fee (1yr)

$82 3 yearly reservation / 36 months = $2.28 monthly reservation fee (3yrs)

1yr reservation total monthly cost: $9.61
3yr reservation total monthly cost: $7.39

According to the latest Big Mac Index article (http://www.economist.com/node/16646178?story_id=16646178), a Big Mac costs US$3.73.

so you can get a 3yr reserved micro instance for less than 2 Big Macs a month! ;p

Also, I should probably point out that AWS have a "Simple Monthly Calculator" that you can use as well:

http://calculator.s3.amazonaws.com/calc5.html

thanks,

mark

[Andrew Bruno]

Hi Mark,

Really appreciate your followup.  For $10 per month, its pretty good base to get started with AWS and test the waters without breaking the bank :)

Cheers
Andrew