Oracle Squares up to AWS with Cloud Cost Calculator

Oracle has issued a direct challenge to Amazon Web Service (AWS) by launching a calculator that it claims will show its own cloud to be cheaper.

The enterprise software vendor claims the tool offers an “apples-to-apples” comparison between its own cloud infrastructure and that of AWS, stating the former is more likely to emerge as the most cost-efficient.

According to an Oracle blog post, the calculator compares costs of computing and storage, but also data input/output per second ( IOPs) and data transmission out of the cloud.

The vendor described the former cost, known as data egress, as “a wild card”.

“That’s because traditional cloud companies charge a markup after a given amount of data flows out,” the post read.

“So once you hit that magic monthly number—1 GB for AWS—data egress charges kick in. At Oracle, the meter doesn’t start running until after 10,000 times more data egress – or 10 TB—per month.”

Oracle added that for companies, especially those  streaming a high number of data-intensive videos, the charges are not “chump change” on their bottom lines.