[btilly]

Using the AWS cost calculator is pointless, naturally an entity the size of NASA would get heavily discounted rates.

I strongly doubt this.

Amazon seems to work heavily on the principle that they charge their cost + a small margin. Which means that they can't heavily discount without going below their actual costs.

[payamb]

The organisation I’m working for gets a nice %25 discount on quite a lot of AWS products

[solarkraft]

> Amazon seems to work heavily on the principle that they charge their cost + a small margin

In their retail business. They finance that operation through the relatively high margin AWS.

[justinclift]

> + a small margin

If by "small margin" you mean "several hundred percent", then sure.