How expensive is cloud computing?

Autodesk charges if you want to render more than 50 images. Vectorworks has said that cloud storage is cheap, but cloud computing is expensive -- and so will be charging its customers (eventually) for processing 3D drawings into 2D plans online. So, how much does the cloud cost?

In summer 2011, Cycle Computing delivered a 30,000-core cloud for under $1,300/hour, using Amazon Web Services. [source]

For an end user, employing the service for a few seconds, it's going to cost just $1.80 or so. For a Cloud Services Reseller like Autodesk and Vectorworks, it's going to cost $1,300 an hour or $11 million a year, should the service be fully utilized by thousands and millions of CAD customers.

(Naturally, the $1,300/hr pricetag doesn't necessarily apply directly to CAD renderings; it's a number we can work with. And yes, I did invent the new "cloud services reseller" moniker.)

 

Comments

[Tony]

Nate at TechOpsGuys.com says cloud computing is very expensive (compared to doing it in-house). One issue: almost all the providers charge for capacity, not usage. In other words, AWS charges for the number of servers you have active, not how much CPU time, etc each server uses.

It's kind of similar on the CAD end: all of the vendors require you to pay for a block of time (say 3 months, typically at a pretty high price), not for the real amount of time you use it.