I'm exploring AWS for a small business client who's currently overpaying for their Azure cloud solution. After using the AWS Pricing Calculator, the estimate I received appeared surprisingly low—almost too good to be true. I noticed it also includes the Windows Server license in the quoted price. A former colleague mentioned that the AWS Pricing Calculator might not be reliable, suggesting that the actual costs could exceed the estimate. Is this a common concern, or can I trust the tool's estimates?
5 Answers
It's not that the calculator is unreliable; it just requires a comprehensive approach. When estimating costs, make sure you're considering all the components involved. For example, when pricing an EC2 instance, don't forget to include the EBS storage, public IP costs, data transfer expenses, and others. People often overlook some components—like EBS—which can lead to underestimating the actual costs.
While this might be specific to AWS, remember that Azure and AWS have similar pricing for their services. Sometimes, moving from Azure to AWS might not save money unless you're optimizing resource use. It's worth looking into whether your client’s Azure resources are properly sized or if there are architectural improvements to consider that could lower their costs.
Exactly, sometimes licenses can be cheaper, but you might face higher costs if the architecture isn't optimized. If you switch to AWS and improve your architecture, it could lead to lower costs.
If you really want a precise estimate, I'd recommend checking this document on the AWS Pricing Calculator: https://go.aws/3SGWTO6. Also, if you need more personalized help, reaching out to their Sales team might be beneficial: http://go.aws/contact-aws. They can provide insights tailored to your situation!
Before jumping to AWS, make sure you gather a detailed breakdown of your client's current Azure bill. Look for any oversized resources or wasteful spending like idle VMs or unattached storage volumes. Once you have that, compare those costs to the nearest AWS services using the calculator without skipping any details. You might find that the costs are similar after all.
The AWS Pricing Calculator is generally reliable, but there are some hidden costs that can catch you off guard once you actually start using AWS. While your colleague might be right about those hidden costs, they're wrong to say the calculator itself is unreliable. If you let us know which services you've estimated, we can help point out any potential considerations. Personally, I recommend budgeting an additional 20-40% on top of the calculator's obvious costs like compute and storage, just to be safe.
Totally! The number of folks who forget to add EBS into their estimates is surprising. It's not very obvious in the EC2 section.