
I was really shocked when looking at calculations about the cost of on-prem vs cloud. Let me explain.
Since 2015 the price of AWS $/GB standard tier has been approx. $0.023 - that's six years without significant price change.
And this is despite the underlying cost of HDDs / TB falling pretty much steadily:
Other large cloud storages have similarly held their pricing in the face of underlying hard drive costs remaining static. So what's going on here? Why haven't cloud costs been reduced in the period?
The True Cost of a Cloud Service Of course, the cost of the HDD isn't the only cost for a service provider, some other costs include:
Networking including for some services bandwidth
Professional Services
Rack Hosting
Insurance + Legals
Energy
But even so, I can't help but ask the question why a cost that was regularly falling in prior years (e.g., AWS standard tier pricing was once over 600% more expensive than in 2015) has been stuck in the mud.
What About Lower Cost Storage Tiers? Of course, one tactic employed by some cloud services has been to introduce lower-cost storage tiers, perhaps with lower levels of data redundancy or lower speeds of access available. That's all well and good, but it doesn't really answer why the standard pricing has stuck.
Why You Should Care versus On-Prem When considering whether to host yourself (to buy on-prem or use a private cloud) a key consideration is cost and if the cost of cloud isn't falling whereas the cost of on-prem is, then there is a very strong argument that on-prem might be a better option.
E.g., take a data store that will rise in size from 1PB to 5PB over 5 years, growing 1PB per annum.
If the cloud system costs $276k per annum per PB (based on $0.023 / GB PCM), then year 1 = $276k and year 2/2PB = $552k etc. Over 5 years, ending up with 5PB the total cost comes to $4,140,000 (plus egress fees, but let's ignore that for now).
Let's compare that to on-prem where 1PB = $169k to buy. If the on-prem system is scalable over time (as per MatrixStore from Object Matrix), and the cost of that scaling falls by 20% per annum as HDD prices fall then the total cost over 5 years and ending up with 5PB comes to $568,110.
Yes, you read that correctly:
Cloud = $4.1m
On-prem = $568k
Of course, a TCO calculation will look at other factors such as energy and hosting but even so, the difference is perhaps too significant to ignore if you have a growing media store.
Why Isn't Cloud Pricing Falling then? What we are seeing, I believe, are a combination of factors that are affecting cloud pricing. First of all, I think it is natural for vendors of cloud to add in services and underlying costs that need to be reflected in the price. But increasingly the casual buyer of the service may end up paying for something that just isn't required. For instance, do you really need worldwide distribution of data with caching, e.g., in China? If not then you may be paying for capabilities that you just will never use.
Secondly, there is a suspicion of lock-in. We've seen it over and over where large vendors start to get greedy; they have their customers and can make more money by holding prices for their locked-in customers rather than by being ultra-competitive against an open market. Third, the complexity of large scale cloud solutions is enormous and this cost is being passed on.
OM Note Please note that the calculations made are approximate and take into account only the headline numbers. We'd encourage everyone to make their own calculations. Please also note that we supply both on-prem and cloud solutions - we are pro-cloud! - but are also strong advocates of open markets, competitive pricing and people buying the appropriate solution for their needs.
More from Matrixstore Quattro Object Matrix Ltd
09/06/2022
Everybody Still Loves a DIVA Object Matrix has a very long-standing relationship with both the Telestream Diva application and the fantastic team behind it. Thi...
25/05/2022
During most creative workflows there is a brain-like entity controlling what goes where and when. Be that a MAM, DAM, or PAM, it holds the keys to all the secre...
11/05/2022
Object Matrix and IVORY are celebrating ten years of business partnership together. The combination of expertise and talent of both organisations has helped con...
04/05/2022
In December 2021, I was super miserable at having to miss the SVG event in New York due to UK/USA travel restrictions. I could have gone, but then the chance of...
29/04/2022
We are thrilled to have been nominated in six of this year's Storage Awards categories. At Object Matrix, our team place the highest importance on ensuring ...
28/04/2022
The combination of MatrixStore, the object storage solution for the media indust...
22/04/2022
Cardiff, Wales, UK, 22nd April 2022 Object Matrix will share the latest enhancements and updates to its Matrixstore and Vision solutions, alongside its US par...
20/04/2022
The technical partnership between Telestream and Object Matrix has been extended with a new integration between Telestream DIVA content management and MatrixSto...
19/04/2022
April 19, 2022 Bloomington, MN - Scale Logic, a global leader in Media Workflow Solutions, announced today the launch of the company's new media-focused O...
06/04/2022
During my trip to the HPA Tech Retreat it became abundantly clear that the conversations around cloud workflows, cloud storage and archiving in particular, is b...
31/03/2022
Why Data Backup is Important for Your Business It is World Backup Day on 31st March. A day for people to learn about the increasing role of data in our lives an...
30/03/2022
1. Great to see some old friends once more and also made some new ones Clearly a lot of people really are ready to meet in person again. The flight out from LHR...
11/03/2022
Since 2016, ELEPHANT have used MatrixStore object storage, in their on-prem operations, to streamline digital delivery and ingest whilst strengthening their nea...
16/02/2022
As a newcomer to the tech industry, it's easy to become overwhelmed with the complexities and becoming familiar with the acronyms and tech-speak is like lea...
02/02/2022
It's safe to say, 2020 witnessed an accelerated demand for cloud storage. With organisations quickly adapting to remote working, creative and post-productio...
26/01/2022
Object Storage & Remote Workstations at HPA with Object Matrix, SimpleCloud & CineSys As the world begins to open back up again and travel restrictions slowly r...
14/12/2021
The following information provides a security update for all MatrixStore customers regarding Apache Log4j2.
In December 2021, a remote code execution vulnerab...
29/11/2021
Keeping Content Close - Wherever it's Stored
The move to the cloud continues to gather pace across the media industry. The pandemic has forced organisatio...
23/11/2021
23rd November 2021, Paris & Cardiff Object Matrix, the leading provider of object storage solutions and media-focused cloud platforms to the media industry, h...
17/11/2021
I was really shocked when looking at calculations about the cost of on-prem vs cloud. Let me explain.
Since 2015 the price of AWS $/GB standard tier has been a...
09/11/2021
Welcome to the next instalment of our Employee Spotlight Series! The global pandemic lockdown restrictions have prevented us from doing what we love the most - ...
03/11/2021
Technology has evolved, and content consumption is exploding but are you still stuck using technology from the 90s and manual processes to support on demand wor...
29/10/2021
Object Matrix will be co-exhibiting at this year's SATIS show, 9th and 10th November in Paris (stand C7).
From production to distribution of content SATIS ...
26/10/2021
Doghouse Post Production Ltd transforms their media storage with MatrixStore Clo...
20/10/2021
Store, Regret, Repeat The still-fresh outage of Whatsapp, Facebook and Instagram gave a timely reminder of what can happen when so many are dependent on so few....
11/10/2021
With most of us still working from home due to the global pandemic lockdown restrictions, we recently launched our employee spotlight series. Without further ad...
08/10/2021
Object Matrix proudly announces that creative production house, Irresistible Studios has migrated its archive to MatrixStore Cloud. Irresistible Studios is a gr...
08/10/2021
Object Matrix named Software Defined Storage (SDS) Vendor of the Year at the Storage Awards 2021
After what has felt like one of the most turbulent times in o...
22/09/2021
Atlantis T l vision Triples MatrixStore On-Prem Object Storage Footprint After 5-years of benefitting from operational efficiencies and increased collaboration ...
22/09/2021
Atlantis T l vision triple son parc de stockage objet MatrixStore On-Prem Atlantis T l vision tend aujourd'hui la capacit de son stockage objet MatrixStor...
09/09/2021
The past year has thrown up some extraordinary challenges for the media industry, which has had to adapt at an even greater pace than usual. This makes it an ev...
08/09/2021
Welcome to our Employee Spotlight Series! The global pandemic lockdown restrictions have prevented us from doing what we love the most - face to face meetings a...
08/09/2021
Object Matrix used to market MatrixStore, our on-prem object storage / private cloud solution, using arguments around total cost of ownership (TCO) to our advan...
08/09/2021
Welcome to the Second Instalment of our Employee Spotlight Series! The global pandemic lockdown restrictions have prevented us from doing what we love the most ...
02/08/2021
Based on the topics discussed in the Multi-Cloud Article, it is clear that the choice of cloud storage mix will be based on the requirements placed on the data ...
28/07/2021
Cloud adoption has been in motion for some time now. The pandemic has now made remote access to content much more of a necessity. With cloudification increasing...
22/07/2021
media.cymru will make the region a global hub for media innovation and production. Object Matrix is delighted to be a member of the media.cymru Consortium which...
17/09/2020
-- Extensis and Object Matrix Provide Integrated Archive Solutions for Regulated Corporate Media Environments
Object Matrix (https://object-matrix.com/) and Ex...
17/09/2020
-- Object Matrix: In Conversation with Intersport
In 2019, Chicago based creative agency Intersport, implemented MatrixStore, the media focused private cloud s...
15/09/2020
--
Fortium Technologies Solution Brief
Our Media Focused Hybrid Cloud Storage platforms meet the tactical and strategic needs of many stakeholders and bring ...
09/09/2020
-- Exploiting Video Archives Pre & Post COVID
If you would like to learn more about how to exploit your media archives, and how that can be done during the glo...
09/09/2020
Companies across the globe have had to adapt to this new world of ours at a rapid pace. The way we socialise, the way we shop, and of course, the way we work ha...
26/08/2020
-- Could Rushes be the Key to Disproving Deep Fake Video?
A recent article in the Guardian newspaper raised the possibility of footage on the Jeremy Kyle show ...
17/08/2020
-- DPP Launches Project Supporting Media Industry Recovery
The DPP, the media industry's business network, has today revealed that its next major research ...
12/08/2020
Una Cadena. M ltiples Proveedores.
Durante nuestros 17 a os trabajando con cadenas como BBC, ITN, NBC, TV Globo y France T l visions, hemos identificado 3 pro...
06/08/2020
Cardiff, UK, Wales 5th August 2020
Object Matrix has announced it has validated a number of 3rd party integrations against its managed service cloud storag...
23/07/2020
-- Sports Producers more productive with Object Matrix & Vizrt
-- Viz One And Object Matrix Storage Streamline Workflows For Sports Channel beIN Sports' Ra...
22/07/2020
Una Cadena. M ltiples Proveedores.
Durante nuestros 17 a os trabajando con cadenas como BBC, ITN, NBC, TV Globo y France T l visions, hemos identificado 3 pro...
15/07/2020
One Broadcaster. Multiple Vendors.
During our 17 years working with broadcasters such as the BBC, ITN, NBC, TV Globo and France Televisions, we have identifie...
09/07/2020
-- How To Handle Archives Of Sports Content
When COVID-19 restrictions started being introduced, the cancellation of sports fixtures was greeted with respect f...