> "With GCP, the pricing is very straightforward: you pay a certain base price per instance per month, and you get a discount on that price of up to 80% for sustained use. In practice: If you run an instance 24/7, you end up paying less than half of the “regular” price."
I wish either of those two statements were true! I hope you didn't actually base your pricing decisions on what you wrote in the article. The sustained use discount is a total of 30% off (not "more than 50%"), if you use an instance 24/7 for a calendar month. Also, the 80% discount off the full price is only for pre-emptible instances, which are the ones that may not be available and are always killed within 24 hours.
I think you are right. There is nothing "transparent" about pricing in the various clouds. I am of the mind that one should test for min. 30 days to get a good feel for what it will cost. There are just too many variables and little minefields (ingress, egress, network activity, etc.)
I wish either of those two statements were true! I hope you didn't actually base your pricing decisions on what you wrote in the article. The sustained use discount is a total of 30% off (not "more than 50%"), if you use an instance 24/7 for a calendar month. Also, the 80% discount off the full price is only for pre-emptible instances, which are the ones that may not be available and are always killed within 24 hours.