The cost of running a configuration on public cloud Linux is cheaper than running it on internal IT, according to Information Services Group’s findings of October Cloud Comparison Index.
But this is possible until the compute instance usage reaches 78 percent, after which internal IT is cheaper.
On the back of the latest findings, ISG suggested that buyers need to consider the significant price differences between cloud providers and the added costs of running enterprise-class operating systems on the public cloud.
The October ISG report showed further indications of decreasing public cloud costs. The cost of running the same configuration on Windows Server or Red Hat Enterprise Linux in the public cloud is cheaper than internal IT until usage reaches 57 percent, up from the 55-percent break-even point ISG reported in June.
At 100 percent usage, running a Windows configuration in the public cloud can range in price from $768 to $1,096 per month, a 43 percent difference in price. That represents an increase from a 35 percent price differential in June.
This compares to an internal IT cost of $541 a month, which is slightly lower than the cost of this configuration in June.
Running the same configuration at 100 percent usage on the Red Hat Enterprise Linux system in the public cloud can range in price from $796 to $910 per month, a 14 percent difference depending on the provider.
Using public cloud Linux, the monthly cost of running the application at 100 percent usage ranges from $532 to $738, a 39 percent differential between providers, compared with an internal IT cost of $510 a month.
Further, the ISG report showed Windows Server instance costs are dropping approximately 6.5 percent a year; Linux instance costs are falling about 4.5 percent a year, and the cost of shared storage is declining about 4.5 percent a year.
“Buyers with highly utilized workloads running on cloud Linux would be wise to shop around,” said Steve Hall, partner and leader, ISG Emerging Technologies.
Hall noted significant price difference – as much as 40 percent – between the providers analyzed when running high-usage applications on the cloud version of Linux.
He said to reap the greatest cost savings, enterprises should consider a multi-cloud approach for workloads that can run on such a no-frills operating system.
Arya MM
