Author: Steve Upkin

Steve is a product-marketer and Engineer at Cloudysave who works with Cloud Management and Adoption team. Over the past years, he has collaborated with multiple teams to provide a robust and cost-effective architecture patterns to influence business and engineering decisions. His key areas of interests include Cloud Costs Management, Security and DevOps Best-Practices.
What is reduced redundancy storage AWS s3 pricing

What is Reduced Redundancy Storage AWS S3 Pricing?

Posted on | by Steve Upkin | Leave a Comment on What is Reduced Redundancy Storage AWS S3 Pricing?

The Amazon Simple Storage Service, known as S3 in short, is one of the most demanded Amazon Web Services (AWS) today. AWS S3 pricing is extremely flexible and thus very popular as users are charged only for the storage space used. From small-time bloggers to huge enterprises, the Amazon S3 services are used alike for its incredible storage charges. Various research studies have shown that AWS S3 service is ranked among the top-5 cloud computing and storage services offered by Amazon Web Services. 

What is Amazon Reduced Redundancy Storage Service?

The Reduced Redundancy Storage (RSS) is a popular option in AWS S3 storage which allows users to store reproducible, non-critical data at lower redundancy levels as compared to the conventional Amazon storage services. The AWS S3 RSS services are designed for distribution and sharing of content which is stored at a remote location, as well as for storing thumbnails, transcoded media and similar processed data which can be easily duplicated. 

The S3 RSS system stores data on several different devices within multiple facilities and provides 400 times more durability as compared to conventional disk drive storage systems. However, is does not copy data as frequently as the standard S3 storage from AWS. 

In short, Amazon’s S3 RSS is:

  • Supported with Amazon S3 Service Level Agreement.
  • Created to provide optimal durability and complete availability of objects per annum. 
  • Meant to sustain data loss within one facility. 

The three most costs under AWS S3 pricing plans are:

  1. Storage charges – This is charged according to data/month and is charged on an hourly basis 
  2. API operation costs – The charges are US$ 0.005 / 10000 read requests (write requests cost 10 times more in comparison) 
  3. Data transfer outside AWS region – This is charged at the rate of US$ 0.02 / GB according to specific AWS region and around US$ 0.06 / GB on the internet 

The actual AWS S3 pricing differs depending on the region and volume however optimization methods remain the same. 

Tips to save on AWS S3 Pricing

Storage, data transfer and API are the areas that incur most expenses. While some optimizations help improve overall efficiency others help to automate waste reductions. 

Tips to save on AWS S3 Pricing

Tips to save on AWS S3 Pricing – Reduced Redundancy Storage

Let’s check out some of the tips that experts advise to keep your AWS S3 pricing in check:

1 – Save on storage fees

Never store files that are not needed anymore. Check out some ways that can help reduce storage costs when using AWS S3:

  • Delete files that are not relevant after a specific date 
  • Delete unneeded files which are replicable 
  • Use the “lifecycle” feature to delete old versions of buckets within S3
  • Delete incomplete multi-part uploads 

2 – Compress data before transferring to S3

It is highly recommended to use a quick-compression, such as LZ4 for better performance and simultaneously reducing storage requirements. This way, you can lower the cost of AWS S3 RSS services. In most cases, it is necessary to use compute-centric compressions, such as ZSTD or GZIP. 

Usually, you exchange CPU time for better network IO and spend less on S3 service. 

3 – Focus on data formats matter in big data applications

Implementing improved data structures can have a noticeable impact on the performance of your applications and the size of storage required. If you store numbers frequently, then binary format (AVRO) can help to use less space for storage if we compare it with JSON. 

Using column-based storage is recommended for storing analytics batch processing that provides improved compression and optimized storage. 

4 – Use IA (Infrequent Access) storage class

Infrequent Access (IA) storage class offers the same performance and API as normal S3 storage. However, IA is at least 400% cheaper as compared to S3 storage however IA does incur charges for retrieval.

Use IA (Infrequent Access) storage class

Use IA (Infrequent Access) storage class

If your object download requirement is less than twice a month then you can save significant money through IA. 

Bottom Line

There are immense cases of S3 specific optimization. Project management requires immense data-centric activities. It becomes easier to save on AWS S3 pricing when you know the estimates effort for your S3 storage needs. Lastly, it is vital to understand the situation and manage the complex challenges that may arise in the near future to help cut costs on S3 services from Amazon. 

Locking an S3 Object

AWS S3 pricing model

S3 Pricing Calculator

Posted in S3
How AWS Cloud Computing Pricing Works

How AWS Cloud Computing Pricing Works

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AWS Cloud Computing Pricing Guideline

Thousands of small and large enterprises today swear by the efficiency and ease offered by Amazon Web Service (AWS) cloud computing services. Apart from offering an incredible array of features, the AWS cloud computing services are lined with incredibly powerful safety features which make it ideal for all types of businesses. 

However, as its services are vast and varied this often tends to create confusion among clients as to how they are being charged. In this article, we are going to try and understand how AWS cloud computing pricing actually works. 

Different Types of AWS Pricing Plans 

The official AWS pricing page lists 3 different ways that clients pay for the services they use. Let’s take a quick look at them:

1 – On-Demand (Pay – As – You – Go)

This is one of the most common forms of pricing for AWS services. Under this plan, you can use cloud resources when you need them. At the time of billing, you are charged for only those services that you used. 

This type of pricing plan does not require customers to buy physical servers and prevents unwanted expenses. 

2 – Save Your Reserve

This plan allows users to request specific services beforehand. This forms a contract between user and AWS which also helps the user to get the significant price reduction. 

Under this plan, you can choose to pay for your cloud computing service plan through three different modes: 

  • Pay nothing upfront (this is more expensive)
  • Pay partial upfront (this is slightly less expensive)
  • Pay all upfront (this is the least expensive option) 

3 – Use More Pay Less

Several AWS services are provided through a tier-based system that is dependent on your usage. Under this plan, the more services you use, the less are you charged at the time of billing. 

How AWS Cloud Computing Pricing Works - use more pay less

How AWS Cloud Computing Pricing Works – use more pay less

As easy as the pricing plans seem, there are still thousands of AWS users who end up forking out an extensive charge at their billing time. 

Facts about AWS Cloud Computing Pricing Plans

Let’s check out some of the basic tips that you need to keep in mind when deciding on the best-suited AWS pricing plan for your requirements:

  • Pay as you go is quite expensive – Many users are under the wrong impression that AWS cloud computing services are inherently cheap. Every cloud service provider emphasizes on their rates to sell their service plans. However, it is not always advisable to choose a pay-as-you-go pricing plan for cloud computing. 
  • Increased commitment should mean lowered prices – This is the best way to save money on your cloud computing service plans. Make a commitment to AWS to use their services for the long term and you get significant price-cuts. 
  • Read terms and conditions carefully – Always make sure to read the fine print carefully before choosing the type of AWS pricing plan that suits your needs. The cloud computing service provider offers documents with detailed terms and conditions clearly outlined. Although it might seem like a boring task, it is necessary to read through it and understand the conditions completely before committing yourself for any AWS service. 

Amazon Web Services Pricing Plans

To make it easier to understand the pricing plans of AWS services, we are going to set EC2 as our standard as it is one of the most commonly used cloud computing services. 

Amazon Web Services Pricing Plans

Amazon Web Services Pricing Plans

Pay-as-you-Go

When using AWS services under the pay-as-you-go (on-demand) pricing plan you are charged for the services either by the hour (or even per-second) without having to make any initial payments. 

This is the best option for users who wish to test the service and are not ready to make a long-term commitment for the service. 

 

PROS

  • Most efficient payment pricing plan 
  • No-down-payment required
  • Excellent for unexpected jobs 

 

CONS

  • Most expensive payment plan
  • Bills may get high unexpectedly 

 

 

Spot Instances 

Spot instances are at least 90% cheaper as they occupy the spare space which is normally seen with large-scale cloud computing services, such as AWS.

However, the downside to using spot instances is that in case another user offers more money, the service may send you a 2-minute notice before terminating your spot instance connection. 

 

PROS

  • Largest cost-efficient option 
  • Ideal for spare computing and quick scaling 
  • AWS Hybernate saves instances in-state and releases them when another spare capacity becomes available 

 

CONS

  • Your instance gets terminated at any time with only a 2-minute warning 
  • Harder to utilize completely 

Reserved Instances (RIs)

Reserved Instances (RIs) are ideal for users who are looking to commit themselves for 1 to 3 years with AWS. Reserved instances are charged whether they are used or not however the company does offer a significant discount. This service also offers payment options – full upfront, partial upfront and no upfront payment.

 

PROS

  • Easiest to setup and maintain 
  • Excellent cost-cutting measure 

 

CONS

  • Multiple RIs can be difficult to manage
  • Need to pay for reserved capacity even when not used 

Bottom Line

Let’s hope that this guide to understand how AWS cloud computing pricing plans work was helpful and will be an advantage to you when choosing the best-suited AWS services for your enterprise. 

Cloud Cost Optimization Strategies

AWS Fargate Price Reduction

Cloud Cost Optimization Strategies

Cloud Cost Optimization Strategies

Posted on | by Steve Upkin | Leave a Comment on Cloud Cost Optimization Strategies

Cloud cost optimization process is concerned with decreasing the overall expenses on cloud services by determining mismanaged resources, removing waste, reserving capacity for a larger discount and scaling computing services according to requirement.

The process of cloud cost optimization offers incredible scalability and decreases IT cost by charging only for the resources being used. Normally, clients using cloud computing and storage services are charged as per the resources ordered, despite having use of them or not. According to research, around 70% of cloud costs are wasted using this strategy. Hence, there is a vast scope to save money for business when using cloud-based IT services.

7 Tips for Cloud Cost Optimization Strategies

Here are the expert tips on ensuring cloud cost optimization in your business:

1 – Identify unused or unattached resources

Identifying unused or unattached resources is the easiest way towards cloud cost optimization. Very frequently, developers or administrators need to create an additional “server” for a specific function but forget to switch it off once its work is done. In addition, the administrator may also forget to remove storage which is attached to instances that are then closed. This is a frequent occurrence in IT departments of large business organizations. This prompts the cloud service provider to charge for resources that have been purchased but are no longer in use.

Identify unused or unattached resources

Cloud Cost Optimization Strategies – Identify unused or unattached resources

2 – Collect idle resources

Next, it is important to identify the idle resources. An idle computing instance may result in 15% CPU usage while the billing includes charges for 100% usage. This is a significant waste of resources and money. An essential way to cut down on cloud resource costs is to search for idle instances and consolidate them into a fewer number of instances.

In contrast to data centers, with the help of cloud computing, today administrators are able to auto-scale, load balance and request on-demand services that provide scalable computing power at any time.

3 – Use Heatmaps

Heatmaps are extremely useful for ensuring cloud cost optimization. Heatmaps are visual tools that help show peaks and lows in overall computing demand for a particular organization or department. This is valuable information when you want to create start and stop times to cut down costs.

A heatmap can show whether development servers are safe to shut down on weekends. Although this can be done manually, leveraging automation to schedule your instances’ start and stop is a better option for cutting costs.

4 – Right Size Computing Services

Right-sizing is the technique of analyzing computing services and altering them to their most optimal size. There are over 1.7 million possible combinations to choose from and hence it gets difficult for administrators to determine the size of instances. Also, for server sizes, administrators have a variety of choices with different databases, memory, computing, storage capacity, graphics and throughput, etc.

 

Right-sizing techniques help optimize the entire instance family if required. In addition to ensuring cloud cost optimization, right-sizing also helps with cloud optimization to ensure optimal use of available resources.

5 – Invest in Reserved Instances (RIs)

Business organizations that rely on cloud-computing extensively should invest in Reserved Instances (RIs). These are significant discounts offered by cloud service providers, such as Amazon Web Services (AWS) and are dependent on the upfront payment and time commitment. A business enterprise can save as much as 75% with RI-based cloud cost optimization offers.

Invest in reserved instances

Invest in reserved instances

As RIs need to be purchased for a long term period, it is highly recommended to analyze your past use and determine the future use accordingly.

6 – Get benefits of spot instances

Spot instances are quite different from Reserved Instances (RIs) and can help you cut down on your cloud service expenses significantly. Spot instances are sold by auction to the highest bidder and are ready for use immediately after purchase.

However, chances to bid for spot instances are far and few in between and hence are best-suited for computing jobs that can be terminated quickly, such as batch jobs. These temporary jobs are more frequently required in large business enterprises, thus spot instances are included in cloud cost optimization plans.

7 – Choosing multi-cloud vs. single cloud

Several business organizations tend to choose multi-cloud solutions to prevent lock-in with the vendor. Although this plan works to enhance uptime and availability, there is a risk of losing volume discounts that are provided by single cloud service providers.

tips for cloud cost management

azure storage pricing calculator

big data analysis

How to conduct AWS cost optimization

How to conduct AWS cost optimization?

Posted on | by Steve Upkin | Leave a Comment on How to conduct AWS cost optimization?

Amazon Web Service (AWS) users often complain of having to pay more than they planned. Many times, users find that their Amazon services are costing more than they estimated. Although AWS services are incredibly useful and popular, users frequently wish to find out ways that can help them cut down on their AWS service charges. This is where our AWS cost optimization services come handy.

AWS cost optimization

AWS cost optimization

There are increasing instances when companies are over-spending on cloud-based services. The amount of money being spent on unused features of cloud computing is staggering, to say the least. Innumerable businesses struggle to reduce the charges for additional features in their cloud-computing service packages.

IT experts mostly recommend three simple solutions to reduce the cost of AWS cloud services, namely:

  1. Rightsizing 
  2. Scheduling 
  3. Purchasing RIs (Reserved Instances)

Although these solutions are advised far and wide their impact on cutting down AWS cost is not equally significant. There are plenty of other solutions that are overlooked. 

Tips for Best AWS Cost Optimization

Try these tips if you are looking for the best AWS cost-cutting solutions:

1 – Trim EC2 Instances

Trimming instances results in reducing their sizes to the actual workloads. However, instances tend to doubles in capacity with each gradual size increase. 

As you upgrade your instance by one level your size doubles up. The same way, rightsizing instances by one level tend to halve their capacity too. Thus, trimming instances work only if there are instances whose optimal utilization is less than around 45%. 

However, it is still important to analyze utilization metrics and find opportunities that shift workloads to families other than “General Purpose” which are better suited to your needs.

2 – Programming On/Off Times

It is highly advised to program the on/off times for non-production instances, including for development, staging, testing and quality analysis. This helps to save as much as 65% of instances when you program the instance to start at 8 AM and end at 8 PM on workdays. 

In addition, you can save even more if the development team works at irregular hours. Applying a more rigorous schedule by monitoring utilization metrics for determining the instances used more frequently is another method. In addition, you can choose to apply a permanently stopped schedule which can be switched on when the instance needs to be used. 

3 – Buying RI (Reserved Instance)

Buying Reserved Instances (RIs) is another solution to optimizing AWS costs. In case you do not need to utilize RIs as frequently as you expected, your AWS cost increases automatically. In addition, AWS cost can also increase if you buy the wrong type of RI and even when you buy what you think of as a basic RI only to find out that the AWS cost is more than what the reservation helps you to save. 

Hence, instead of buying RI to cut AWS cost, we recommend managing RIs effectively by analyzing variables before buying the RI to help reduce AWS prices. 

4 – Remove Non-Committed EBS Volumes

When you launch an EC2 instance an Elastic Block Storage (EBS) is attached to the instance as its local block storage. At the time of terminating the EC2 instances, the EBS volume gets deleted only if you check the “delete on termination” option at the time of launching the instance. In case the box is not checked, then the EBS volume remains in existence and adds to your monthly AWS service charges. 

For many companies who are not aware of this, the unchecked instances keep piling up and thousands of unattached EBS volumes get collected in their EBS cloud. 

5 – Remove Unnecessary Snapshots

Snapshots are very popular for taking data backups on EBS volume from an S3 storage bucket as it only changes the data since the last snapshot was taken in order to prevent storing duplicates in the S3 bucket. Hence, every snapshot has the essential information which is required to restore data to a new EBS volume. 

Normally, only the most recent snapshot is useful to restore data in case anything goes wrong. Although individual snapshots might not cost too much, you can still save significantly on AWS costs by deleting the previous snapshots. 

Bottom Line

Follow these 5 expert tips for effective AWS cost optimization and ensure that you pay only for what you use and do not end up paying additional charges unnecessarily. 

big data analysis

cloud cost management tips

Azure Storage Pricing Calculator

Azure Storage Pricing Calculator

Posted on | by Steve Upkin

Azure is one of the best platforms for web designers to work with cloud-based services. The microsoft-owned platform provides an extensive range of cloud-based services to businesses of different sizes. Azure’s Cloud Storage service is quite popular among web users. Thankfully, they have a special calculator to calculate the overall cost of various cloud-based services of Azure. The Azure Storage Pricing Calculator and more details are given below.

What is Azure Storage Pricing Calculator?

Cloud Storage provides ease of storing both types of data i.e., big and small. No matter what type of storage facility you are currently using, cloud storage can help you in many other ways, which is the reason why most professionals do recommend using cloud storage rather than physical storage services.

Azure provides a reliable cloud storage service that can be utilized as per their business needs. The best part of Azure’s Cloud storage is you don’t need to pay any upfront fees or buy a subscription plan to use the service. You will be asked to pay for what you have used without paying any kind of hidden charges.

What is Azure Storage Pricing Calculator

What is Azure Storage Pricing Calculator

Azure’s Storage Pricing Calculator is a revolutionary tool to help enterprises know how much service they have used and how much money they have to pay for that particular service.

We all know about the different storage plans offered by Microsoft Azure. They have specialized plans for all types of businesses working in different environments. You can easily pick the reliable and affordable storage plan as per your needs, which is indeed a good thing for startups and beginners.

How does the Azure Calculator Work?

The main calculator of Azure allows users to get the estimated cost for the services which they are willing to use from the Azure Platform. The calculator works with a simple principle where a user needs to add the services from the various options available on the page and click the Estimate button at last.

How does the Azure Calculator Work

How does the Azure Calculator Work

How does the Azure Calculator Work - 2

How does the Azure Calculator Work – 2

For more information about how this tool works in the real life, you can follow the layout chart given below. The following layout chart explains to you how you can add different services to the calculator and how the final estimated pricing displays to your screen by this tool.

How does the Azure Calculator Work - Layout Chart

How does the Azure Calculator Work – Layout Chart

Key Features:

Easy-to-use Interface

Azure’s Pricing Calculator has a special dashboard for each user. The estimated cost for every single search will be saved on the Dashboard under the Saved Estimates. You need to click the Save Estimated button after each calculation to keep the Estimated Data saved in the Dashboard. Likewise, other sections can also be easily accessible by the users just by log into the account.

Support Multiple Currencies

Azure Storage Pricing Calculator is not designed for a particular region. Azure users from across the globe can easily make use of this tool to get the estimated cost in their regional currency. Click the change currency button from the drop-down button and select the currency from there.

Ability to Save Estimated Cost

You don’t have to remember the estimated cost of the services you use. If you are calculating the estimated cost for the Azure’s Cloud Storage service, you can simply add the service there and then save the estimated cost. There is a dedicated Save button available to save the estimated cost of the service.

Quick-Share

If you work in a team and want to share the estimated cost with your teammates, you can easily do so by clicking on to the Share button. Once everything is done, scroll down to the bottom of the page where you can see the Share button. You will receive a unique link/ URL which you can copy and share with your teammates or co-workers.

Conclusion:

Azure’s Cloud Storage service is quite popular just because of its user-friendly interface and attractive pricing. If you have availed Azure’s Storage Service or wish to avail of it, you should get the estimated cost for that particular service by using the Azure Storage Pricing Calculator.

The detailed estimated cost with the added services and legal documents will be displayed to you by the calculator. The data can be further stored or shared with co-workers with the save button and share button. Give it a try for free and see how it will help you in the near future.

See Also

Azure Cost Optimization Best Practices

Cloud Cost Management Tips

Elastic Beanstalk Pricing

How to Get Most Out of Elastic Beanstalk Pricing

Posted on | by Steve Upkin | Leave a Comment on How to Get Most Out of Elastic Beanstalk Pricing

Elastic Beanstalk Pricing – How it works?

According to Amazon, the Amazon Web Services Elastic Beanstalk is designed to make it easier for developers to deploy applications quickly and manage applications in the AWS cloud server more efficiently. This ease-of-use always prompts business owners and managers to enquire about Elastic Beanstalk pricing. 

All that developers have to do is to upload their applications and Elastic Beanstalk handles and the details of the deployment automatically with regard to capacity provisioning, auto-scaling, load balancing and application monitoring. 

How advantageous is AWS Elastic Beanstalk pricing

Amazon Web Service’s Elastic Beanstalk tools’ main benefits are that it allows us to save time during server configuration and offers powerful customization features and has the advantage of cost-effective Elastic Beanstalk pricing. 

Let’s take a detailed look at the benefits and advantages of integrating and using AWS Elastic Beanstalk:

1 – Super-speedy and automatic configuration

Elastic Beanstalk automatically does the setup, configuration and provides other AWS services (such as RD2, EC2, etc) with Elastic Load Balancing for creating a web service. 

Users can also log on to their AWS management console, and with its help, they can easily create and setup a new website within an hour. Modern Rails applications are also created by Elastic Beanstalk with conventionally standard configuration. 

Super-speedy and automatic configuration

Super-speedy and automatic configuration

This automated process helps to save a significant amount of time as it handles every aspect that needs completion for a production app. The automated process effectively manages Nginx configuration files, configures log file rotations, configures puma serves, installs Linux pack, configures load balancer, installs Ruby and helps to setup the database. Although there are other services that do a similar task, the AWS Elastic Beanstalk pricing makes it the top choice among all. It performs its tasks using top configuration standards, especially at such a low price. 

Some of the specifics of configuration by AWS Elastic Beanstalk include:

  • Rail servers – For Rails, you can choose between Puma or Passenger app stack. It also comes with a sufficient server configuration for log files, user security and directory security. 
  • Support – AWS Elastic Beanstalk readily supports PHP, .NET, Python, Node.js, Go, Ruby and Docker web apps. 
  • SQL Server – The SQL server is automatically configured with Amazon RDS. However, it is essentially an EC2 server with a running database. It includes MySQL and Postgres.
  • AWS Elastic Load Balancer – Rail servers are run with the correct configuration too. 
  • Security – Several new security features and policies have been created by AWS. These are permitted and programmed to communicate with one another. Every server is configured in the initial stages to allow them to communicate with each other and permissions for the relevant tasks. 
  • Customized configuration – It offers an easy and secure way to set customized ENV variables using either the Elastic Beanstalk UI or using tools from the AWS command line. 
  • Default configuration – It effectively sets secrets that allow the ENV variables on the Rails servers to help run Rails smoothly. It focuses on username, Database end-point and password. This is extremely helpful as trying to find an alternative way that is both secure and efficient is quite difficult and time-consuming. 
  • Deployment – It allows users to easily deploy new versions using AWS CLI. As the configuration gets completed, you only need to run “eb deploy” from the root of the git repository and the deployed task automatically starts working. This is also an effective way to integrate with Codeship, the popular Continuous Integration service.
  • Monitoring – It uses Cloudwatch to monitor your servers round-the-clock. 

2 – Strong Customization 

Elastic Beanstalk gives you ultimate control. Everything created with it is simply another AWS service and it is an efficient way to check at EC2, view new instances and SSH into them. You can also update database config files as well as update the security group for every machine. 

Elastic Beanstalk Pricing - Strong Customization

Elastic Beanstalk Pricing – Strong Customization

It allows unprecedented access and control at the lower levels. Although normally customization is difficult it becomes easier and more efficient thanks to its flexibility as compared to other similar services. 

3 – Fantastic flexibility and perfect pricing

The flexibility and the price of AWS Elastic Beanstalk are truly remarkable. First off, it does not charge you for the platform apart from the basic rate of the AWS service you are using on it. In addition, as you have the choice to pick instance sizes according to your discretion and can add additional numbers of front-end servers to the load balancer it becomes easier to match your server requirements with the service load. 

The tool comes with a built-in auto-scaling feature which helps to save money by using additional servers only when required. 

Bottom Line

Thanks to the extremely fast and automatic configuration speed, optimal customization features, impressive flexibility and low cost, there are numerous advantages and benefits to be had from the incredible and lucrative Elastic Beanstalk pricing. 

what is elastic beanstalk