Re:Hackers break into thousands of security cameras, exposin...
by closeparen on Wednesday March 10, 2021 @07:49PM
(#26418697)
When the news comes out that a major company has signed a deal with a cloud provider, it's that they've committed to spend $X over N years. Presumably the deal would be renegotiated if their usage changed dramatically, but it is not actually variable pricing.
This makes no sense to me, because almost no OpEx-based services operate on a predictable billing model. Usage based pricing means they are subject to change.
If I buy a $5,000 server, and it lasts me five years, I can plan around needing $1,000 a year set aside to replace it. Meanwhile, my AWS bill can suddenly be $20,000 with no warning.
The hardware refresh model you describe... I've actually only ever seen in a CapEx appliance, where paying for the support contract got you those refreshes regularly, replacement for failures, etc. but had an initial upfront purchase cost.