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Amazon EC2 makes Cloud Computing affordable for all. Takes on Rackspace
September 10, 2010 | Author: Michael Stromann
Until now, the minimum virtual server (instance) on Amazon EC2 with configuration 1.7 GB RAM / 160 GB - cost 8.5 cents per hour (approximately $61 per month). This amount seemed quite large for most small businesses using web-apps and SaaS startups and kept them from switching from a traditional hosting (or own servers) to the cloud technologies. Some people used Rackspace, which provides the less powerful instances - from 11$ / month for the configuration 256 MB / 10 GB. But today even the most budget conscious small businesses and SaaS startups got the good reason to join the Cloud Computing era, and Rackspace got a new headache - Amazon Micro Instances.
Amazon micro-instances - are virtual Linux-servers with 613 MB RAM, which cost 2 cents per hour (approximately $15 per month). Windows-servers will cost you only 3 cents per hour ($ 22/month). Of course, you'll pay a few more dollars per month for disk space (Amazon EBS) and traffic, but still, this price is comparable (and even lower) than the traditional VPS hosting. And you get all the benefits of cloud platforms - improved reliability, the ability to turn off the server (and not pay) when it's not used and quickly increase the the server capacity in the case of load increase.
See also: Top 10 Public Cloud Platforms
