AWS

[Changaco]

Our estimated AWS bill for April is $53.91, almost entirely composed of EC2 (webapp) and RDS (database) costs. We can decrease the bill by ~35% next month if we pay upfront to reserve one year of what we currently use, however if we need to change anything or migrate off AWS in the next 8 months then we'll have lost money by paying upfront.

If you have any thoughts on what we could/should do feel free to share them here.

(The alternatives to AWS are still the same as a year ago, see #177 (comment).)

[jorgesumle]

Don't have a good answer now, but I prefer setting up our own infrastructure. However, it will be more complicated and I currently don't have the time to help with that. If we haven't had any problem with AWS yet and nobody offers a better solution, just stick with it.

[Changaco]

AWS' Reserved Instance Recommendations confirm the ~35% savings if we pay one year upfront. Moreover it says the credits are "size-flexible", so we'll probably only lose money if we migrate away from AWS too soon.

[comradekingu]

I dislike AWS. Smaller and more "libre" providers are a bit more expensive, but I would chip in to see a change away from AWS to that effect.

[Changaco]

Everyone dislikes AWS, yet nobody seems to have a realistic alternative to propose.

[jorgesumle]

Everyone dislikes AWS, yet nobody seems to have a realistic alternative to propose.

Yes, so the best option is to keep using it until someone comes up with a replacement. Just saying we prefer small libre providers isn't enough, we must offer a proposal. I clarify it in case my opinion was misunderstood.

[ghost]

Unless some numbers about the necessary resources (CPU, memory, HD) and software are presented, it is hard to suggest an alternative.

[comradekingu]

@Changaco https://greenhost.net/ is rolling out a system that looks to be the best of both worlds.

[Siesh1oo]

Have a look on https://www.hetzner.de (depending on load/storage dedicated or cloud might be more efficient, both seem much better bang-for-buck than aws), and maybe directly contact https://www.vikings.net. Both are hosting from Europe.

[tuxayo]

Everyone dislikes AWS, yet nobody seems to have a realistic alternative to propose.

When there will be enough donations, would a switch be possible?

What should be the new goal on https://eo.liberapay.com/LiberapayOrg/ ?

[Changaco]

Traditional hosting providers aren't equivalent to AWS, they only provide machines with an OS preinstalled, whereas AWS is an entire ecosystem of services that make it easier to build a real web app, including databases (RDS), file storage (S3) and email delivery (SES). Running a web app outside of a cloud ecosystem like AWS means installing and maintaining auxiliary services yourself, which can cost a lot of time. Some traditional hosting providers have realized this and are starting to offer their own sets of services based on OpenStack, but they're a long way from being on par with AWS.

[Changaco]

Note: there are AWS competitors that I didn't know about when I first migrated Liberapay, for example IBM Cloud and Alibaba Cloud, however I'm not sure they have significant advantages.

[Changaco]

Our monthly AWS bill is usually below or around €50, but the one for last month jumped to €72.19 ($79.11), mostly because of data transfer charges, for 355GB!

[Changaco]

I've opened a new issue: #1727.