Cloud Computing Cost and Top Providers

Cloud Computing Rates

One of the latest technological advances that have managed to reap a lot of rewards is cloud computing. Basically, cloud computing is computing that is totally based on the internet. 

This means that all resources that are shared, such as software, information and every other important requirement are provided to computers specifically on demand. Basically, the evolution of widespread adoption of architecture that is service oriented, virtualization and utility computing has resulted in the advent of cloud computing. Simply put, cloud computing provides users with online capabilities of using programs which they would otherwise need to install from their web browser rather than installing them on their computer.

 This means that rather than buying programs and installing them, you can now use web based applications of the same program from your web browser, as if they were actually installed on your computer. Cloud computing has risen extensively in popularity over the years, as people have now been allowed access to basic programs from the internet, without the need of having to install these programs on your computer. Typically, most of the cloud computing providers offer programs such as the most common business applications which can be easily accessed from another Web service or software like a Web browser. The good part is that all the data as well as the software is stored on the servers of the cloud computing provider.

Generally, cloud computing requires licenses and service level agreements (SLAs) between the companies that are providing their applications and the cloud computing providers. Some of the most prominent cloud computing providers are Google, Sales Force, Amazon, Microsoft and Zoho. However, before you can use these services, cloud computing requires licenses for the variety of different applications that you wish to access on the service. Each different service has different charges pertaining to the number of applications that you use, as well as the volume that you would consume. Below is the comparison with the different rates that are charged by Google, Amazon and two other cloud computing providers.

Cloud computing is all about saving money, via two different ways, namely flexible capacity and through economies of scale. The cloud computing providers have certain charges and licensing information that needs to be kept in mind before you can avail the cloud computing services.

Amazon is one of the pioneers of cloud computing and their rates are quite perse as compared to others. The base machine charges for a 1.5 GHz Intel based Processor and the charges are $0.1 per hour, whereas storage charges are $0.15 GB a month. As for ingoing and outgoing charges, you will get a thousand writes for $0.01 you will be charged $0.001 for one thousand read. Bandwidth charges are still quite affordable. You will be able to get 1GB a month at a charge of $0.10 on incoming traffic and $0.15 a GB on outgoing traffic. 

The difference between the services provided by Amazon is that clients were charged, based on the amount of time that the instances are in operation. This means that even if an instance is inactive, you would still have to pay for it. Licenses are provided in three different locations, namely the United States, North Virginia, Northern California and the EU, where it is provided in Ireland. Another thing is that whether you shut down the machine, or if it crashes, then all the data would be lost.

Next up is Google. The cloud computing services provided by Google can be used as long as they are written in Java or Python, and these can be directly deployed. Unlike Amazon, you will only be charged for CPU cycles that you use, as well as you will not have to instantiate a CPU instance. Charges are mainly calculated on the amount of bandwidth used, CPU usage, storage and the amount of emails sent. 

They charge for the CPU is calculated by CPU seconds and this is equivalent to an Intel 1.2GHz based 32 bit processor. You will not have to pay for the time that the CPU is idle. As for storage, you will be charged $0.15 a month for each GB. CPU usage I/O data is at charged $0.10 an hour. You also get 1GB free, and once it is finished, you must pay $0.005 per GB a day. Moving on to bandwidth usage. For incoming traffic you will be billed $0.10 a GB and you will be billed $0.12 a GB for the outgoing traffic and then you will get 1 GB of both for free.

The third cloud computing provider that will be discussed is Microsoft. Instances that have been developed on App Fabric, SQL Azure, Windows Azure and these can all work. The charges for bandwidth usage are calculated in seconds and it is equivalent to an Intel 1.2GHz based 32 bit processor. You will be charged $0.12 an hour of using the CPU for processing all requests, and storage charges stand at $0.15 a month for each GB. As for the bandwidth usage, you would be charged $0.15 a GB for outgoing traffic and $0.10 a GB for incoming traffic. This is extremely easy to use, but the charges in Asia vary, standing at $0.45 for outgoing traffic.

The fourth service to be discussed is Sales Force. The cloud computing services provided by Sale Force are quite similar to the ones provided by Amazon, and CPU usage is calculated in seconds for a 1.5 GHz Intel based 32 bit processor. However, you do not have to pay for the idle time in which the instance is run. Storage charges are around $0.15 a month for each GB that you use. Incoming and outgoing traffic each stands at $0.10 a GB for a month. However, users also get 1 GB free and once you have used up that quota, you would be deducted the above mentioned storage charges for every extra GB that you use. Email charges are not involved, and these just depend on the amount of space that has been consumed over a period of one month.

Hence, this is a comparison between the rates charged by four different providers of cloud computing as well as the rates that they charge to their clients for their services. 

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Regards Sharath Reddy

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