[ericpauley]

> Compared to 36 month reserved pricing the break even point was 8 months if you bought the hardware and rented out some racks at a colo, and that includes the on hands support. Having the dedicated hardware also meant that researchers were willing to experiment more when we weren't doing a planned training job, as it wouldn't pull from our budget.

That’s having it both ways, of course. You can’t both recoup the hardware cost in 8 months and have “free” downtime.

Under this pricing you need at least 25%ish duty cycle to break even (in 3 years) so probably still favoring buying, but for some people that might not add up. Pricing also varies drastically between providers, so this may depend on choice there.

[rfoo]

The thing is, this is compared to 36 months reserved instance, which also assumes 100% usage. For true on-demand you pay much more.

[moonchrome]

Reserved pricing is not on-demand.