What is the cheapest non-colocation way to serve about 10 static files at a rate of 100 megabits per second to the web? [closed]

I've looked at Amazon S3 and it costs roughly $4746 per month for 100 megabits/s (which translates into 31,640 Gigabytes of data transferred. That's at a rate of $0.15 per gig.)

I haven't found a cheaper "cloud" option. I'm curious if there's any other cloud hosting option out there cheaper than S3. Uptime is not an issue because I can build failover for most things into the browser. e.g. I can use javascript to say "if the image didn't load then go to this other URL instead."

FYI I'm currently using a colocation facility which is about 30% cheaper than S3 and I'm familiar with colo prices - so this question is really about "cloud" services and by that I mean services where I don't have to worry about the infrastructure.


Solution 1:

Amazon just announced their Reduced Redundancy Storage (RRS) option on S3, which reduces the reliability but also drops the price from $0.15 per GB to $0.10 per GB. That is pretty much the going rate for metered bandwidth on most co-location and dedicated servers, so you won't find raw bandwidth much cheaper than that. It looks like SimpleCDN claims rates as low as $0.006 per GB transfered, but they bill overages at $0.09 so that sounds a bit sketchy to me.

I have always found that http://www.Superb.net has the best prices for cheap servers and bandwidth. They include 4000GB traffic with each server and will upgrade from a 10mbit to 100mbit uplink port for free usually. You can buy an additional 1000GB/mo for $99 ($0.099 per GB) or you can have an unlimited 100mbit uplink for $800 a month. Check out their dedicated server deals here: https://www.superb.net/dedicated-servers/base-server-plans/

Solution 2:

OVH has absurd pricing on bandwidth, take a look at http://www.ovh.co.uk/products/superplan_mini.xml and http://www.ovh.co.uk/products/superplan_mini.xml?bp=unmetered, which I don't really understand.

I also do not know if they really follow through on what they offer.

Solution 3:

Why not just get a few virtual servers? I'm using a German hoster, but the prices are pretty usual, so let's take it as an example:

  • 12.99 EUR/Month for 1 virtual server
  • 100MBit/s connection per server
  • 5000 GigaBytes traffic/month inclusive per server

So if I were you, I would get 10 servers for a total of 130 EUR per month, and have 50000 GB traffic inclusive, and even get a total connection speed of 1000MBit/s (it's probably not 100% guaranteed speed as some services offer, but AFAIR they guarantee at least 10MBit/s, so I'd still get a total of 100MBit/s).

Yes, you'd have to do a little bit of server administration yourself...

BTW, managed virtual servers - which reduce your admin workload - cost just a few extra bucks (14.99 instead of 12.99 for 5000 GBytes/month). I assume you still wouldn't get the full convenience of a cloud, but it comes down to saving a few thousand dollars per month.