AWS can be very cheap or very expensive depending on how you use it.

To understand pricing on AWS,

we need to talk about two related concepts, space and time.

Space is a measure of capacity or capability.

For example, a computer with a large hard drive is capable of holding a lot of

information, so we say it has a lot of space.

But storage capacity isn't the only kind of capacity there is.

What about processor capacity?

A computer with a fast processor is capable of processing a lot of

information.

So we also say it has a lot of space, even if it has a small hard drive.

There's also network capacity,

which is how fast the computer is able to talk to other computers.

We could say that a computer with a very fast network has a lot of space.

Basically, you can think of space as a measure of how powerful a computer is.

More powerful computers are capable of holding more stuff and doing more stuff.

Then there's time.

Time is a pretty straightforward concept.

It's a measure of how long it takes to do something, but things get a bit

more complicated when you have multiple actors working simultaneously.

Let's say you need to stuff 60 envelopes and

it takes a minute to stuff one envelope.

Its going to take 60 minutes of work, right.

Well, what if we have four people stuffing envelop simultaneously?

Each person only has to stuff 15 envelops, so it takes 15 minutes.

But the task hasn't gotten any smaller.

It's still 60 minutes of work even if it only took 15 minutes of time on the clock.

When we talk about time with computers, we're usually talking about the total work

time added up across all the computers that are working on the task together.

So how does all this relate to AWS?

Anything that you do on AWS will require some amount of space,

some amount of time, or both.

The price you pay is based on space multiplied by time.

In addition, you can usually trade space for time, at least to some degree.

Let's take a look at an example to understand what this means.

You and your friends are going on vacation and

you'll all be staying at the Amazon Hotel.

You need to decide how many rooms to book and

how many nights you'll be staying at the hotel.

At the Amazon hotel, you can book a regular room or a suite.

A suite has more space, but it costs more money than a regular room.

How do you make sure that you can stay at the hotel as long as possible

while not paying too much money?

You could all try to squeeze into one room.

This means that you'll be able to stay at the Amazon hotel for

a long time, because one room isn't very expensive.

However, you're sacrificing space to get that extra time, and

no one will sleep very well in that cramped space.

Alternatively, everyone could get their own room, or

even their own separate suite.

Now, everyone has a lot of space, but that gets expensive quickly and

you might only be able to afford one night at the hotel.

Effectively, you're sacrificing time to get that extra space.

The best approach is somewhere in the middle.

A small number of rooms and suites, shared so that everyone has just enough space

will make sure that you pay the minimum amount for the maximum benefit.