Compare the price of different cloud storage services and see why Jotelulu Object Storage is more economical, accessible and predictable than Amazon S3 or Azure Storage Blobs.
These days, businesses need to store increasing amounts of data. Backups, application data, DevOps solutions… everything generates some sort of file or documentation that needs to be kept for a period of time. All of this data grows and grows, and that’s why there is now demand for services that can optimise the storage of large amounts of data, manage data using an API and reduce usage by GBs or even TBs.
That’s where services like Object Storage from Jotelulu, Amazon S3 or Azure Storage Blobs come in. But do all these services cost the same? How does the cost compare across the platforms? How does each platform invoice these services?
To carry out a comparison like this, we need to evaluate all solutions against the same standard. So, we have come up with an example scenario by taking all the information available on these service providers’ official websites. In particular, we will look at:
- The same amount of storage.
- A data transfer rate set at 20% (it is estimated that the data uploaded and downloaded each month will be the equivalent of 20% of the contracted storage).
- An estimate (based on various similar analyses) that the cost of API requests will be +15% of the storage cost.
Ultimately, what we want to do here is make sure that we compare “apples to apples”, understand how these services are really billed and make it easier to understand the cost of each provider.
Price comparison and analysis between Object Storage, Amazon S3 and Azure Storage Blobs
Comparison of monthly cost per TB for Object Storage vs. Amazon S3 vs. Azure Storage Blobs
The analysis above shows that there is a significant difference in price between the three providers, particularly if we remember that this is the monthly cost of the service. Object Storage offers not only the most competitive price but the price difference continues to grow as the amount of storage increases. At the other end of the scale, Amazon S3 is the most expensive option by far.
What is the reason for this difference in cost?
To answer this question, we need to break down the cost of each service and see how much is paid for storage and how much is paid for other items that are often overlooked but still feature on the invoice at the end of the month.
Breakdown of monthly cost for Object Storage vs. Amazon S3 vs. Azure Storage Blobs.
As the breakdown analysis shows, Jotelulu’s Object Storage is more economical and it only charges for the storage. There are no additional costs. Amazon S3 and Azure Storage Blobs, on the other hand, offer a very cheap price for storage but add on other items including:
- Data transfer (variable cost).
- API requests (variable cost).
These items increase the cost and cause the price to fluctuate more, so they should not be underestimated.
Data transfer and API requests: sources of uncertainty.
Creating backups, moving files, restoring systems…. all of this involves data transfer and API requests. That’s why it’s important not to see these items as of little importance. Their costs are not fixed and do not vary in a predictable way. As they vary, so too does the overall price you will pay. And these, in turn, depend greatly on your business’ own specific circumstances and operations, factors that aren’t always easy to predict and could bring some nasty surprises.
All of this is doubtless a source of uncertainty…. or do you honestly know how many times you will need to restore a server this year? Do you know how many files you are going to need to move?
At Jotelulu, we understand all of this very well. That’s why we offer a product (Object Storage) that is more economical, easy to use and set up and billed at a fixed rate with a competitive price aimed at SMEs. We don’t like uncertainty and excessive costs, and we’re pretty sure no one else does either.
