451 Research has launched its latest Cloud Price Index, a comprehensive analysis of the cost of cloud hosting solutions. Enterprise private clouds powered by VMware, Red Hat and Microsoft are all within half a cent of each other at about $0.10 per virtual-machine hour while OpenStack distributions cost, on average, $0.08 per VM hour, a 20 percent saving. Still, commercial cloud deployments would be cheaper.
When factoring other elements, including the scarcity of OpenStack skills, 451 Research believes that for a typical private cloud deployment, buyers could hire 3 percent more engineers to support a commercial cloud environment, and still have a lower cost of ownership compared to an OpenStack distribution.
“Finding an OpenStack engineer is a tough and expensive task that is impacting today’s cloud-buying decisions,” said Dr. Owen Rogers, senior analyst, 451 Research. “Commercial offerings, OpenStack distributions and managed services all have their strengths and weaknesses, but the important factors are features, enterprise readiness and the availability of specialists who understand how to keep a deployment operational. Buyers need to balance all of these aspects with a long-term strategic view – as well as TCO – to determine the best course of action for their needs.”
“Decisions also need to include the risks associated with lock-in should prices rise, support dwindle or features be decommissioned,” added Rogers. “As OpenStack matures and the pool of available engineering staff increases, buyers can expect the TCO of deploying OpenStack to improve.”
451’s Cloud Price Index
From 2015, the CPI Public Cloud Edition takes into account not only price, but also market share, in its calculation. The resulting figures give the average market price an enterprise should expect to pay per hour for hosting an application on the cloud – it currently stands at $1.70 per hour.
The CPI is based on quotations and estimates from companies including Accenture, Adapt, AWS, Bluebox, Canonical, CenturyLink, Colt, Dell, Dimension Data, Google, Helion HP, IBM, Internap, Logicworks, Metacloud, Microsoft, Mirantis, Piston, Rackspace, Red Hat, SUSE, Swisscom, Verizon, VMware and Windstream.
For more information on the Cloud Price Index, visit: https://451research.com/cloud-pricing-index.
