Introduction
Aurora DB, AWS’s flagship managed database service, is known for its high performance and scalability, supporting both Postgres and MySQL. However, as businesses scale, the costs associated with Aurora can become a significant burden.
In this article, we’ll explore the financial implications of continuing with Aurora DB versus adopting alternative database solutions like self-hosted Postgres and managed Postgres with spot instances.
The Scaling Dilemma
Consider a medium-sized business whose application serves 100,000 concurrent users, generating about 20,000 requests per second. Each request takes approximately 250ms to complete, with the database query portion taking about 150ms.
To handle this load, a significant number of virtual CPUs (vCPUs) would be required:
Base Load Calculation: A single vCPU can handle 20 queries per second, assuming 50% IO wait time, equating to a need for 1,000 vCPUs.
Efficiency through Caching: Introducing a Memcache layer that caches 70% of queries reduces the demand on database servers to 30% of the base load, thus requiring 300 vCPUs.
Database Requirements
Given the workload is read-heavy (80% reads, 20% writes), we would need:
Read Load: 240 vCPUs for reads
Write Load: 60 vCPUs for writes
Infrastructure Setup:
Master DB: R6i.16xlarge with 64 vCPUs
Read Replicas: Two R6i.32xlarge, each offering 128 vCPUs
Cost Analysis: Aurora DB
Master DB: $7,288 monthly (730 hours at $9.984 per hour)
Read Replicas: $32,517 monthly (2 units)
Total Monthly Cost: $39,805 or $477,660 annually
Switching to Self-Hosted Postgres
By transitioning to a self-hosted Postgres setup using on-demand instances, significant savings can be realized, though it incurs costs and requires resources associated with:
These additional operational costs can range anywhere between $20,000-$100,000 depending on the size of the project.
The monthly cost for self-hosting is projected to be:
Master DB: $2,946.36 monthly
Read Replicas: $11,773 monthly
Total EC2 DB Costs: $14,719 monthly or $176,628 annually (63% savings)
Optimizing with Save On Cloud Costs- Managed Postgres and Spot Instances
Leveraging Spot instances for read replicas under a managed service model further reduces costs while maintaining efficiency and reliability using our proprietary technology. With Save On Cloud Costs, you can enjoy the functionality of Aurora DB at a significantly lower cost, with no upfront costs and for a simple monthly fee based on the actual savings you receive.
Master DB: $2,946.36 monthly
Read Replicas using Spot instances: $960 monthly
Total Managed EC2 DB Costs: $3,906 monthly
Conversion to Self-Hosting Cost: No upfront fees, included as our monthly fees
Query Optimization Costs: Included
Backups in Data Failover Processes: Included
SaveOnCC Monthly Fees: $10,769 monthly
Total Inclusive Cost: $14,675.70 monthly ($176,108.40 annually or 63.2% savings)
Conclusion: Making the Cost-Effective Switch
Transitioning from Aurora DB to alternatives like self-hosted or managed Postgres with Spot instances offers significant cost savings. As businesses scale, reevaluating database options can lead to enhanced financial and operational efficiency.
Contact us today, we offer no upfront fees (minimum $35K monthly cloud spend) to convert your technology to self-hosting.
Free up your resources to get ahead of your competition while we facilitate your transition to the most competitive cloud pricing.