The Unseen Price of AWS Serverless
Tags: aws, devops, serverless, cloud
Published: 2023-12-13 19:06:40

Imagine stepping into an auditorium where the promise of the performance is as ephemeral as the illusions on stage; you’re told you’ll only be charged for the magic you actually experience. This is the serverless promise of AWS – services as fleeting as shadows, costing you nothing when not in use, supposed to vanish without a trace like whispers in the wind. Yet, in the AWS repertoire, Aurora V2, Redshift, and OpenSearch, the magic lingers like an echo in an empty hall, always present, always billing. They’re bound by a spell that keeps a minimum number of lights on, ensuring the stage is never truly dark. This unseen minimum keeps the meter running, ensuring there’s always a cost, never reaching the silence of zero – a fixed fee for an absent show.

**Aurora Serverless: A Deeper Dive into Unexpected Costs**

When AWS Aurora first took to the stage with its serverless act, it was like a magic act where objects vanished without a trace. But then came Aurora V2, with a new sleight of hand. It left a lingering shadow on the stage, one that couldn’t disappear. This shadow, a mere 0.5 capacity units, demands a monthly tribute of 44 euros. Now, the audience is left holding a season ticket, costing them for shows unseen and magic unused.

**Redshift Serverless: Unveiling the Cost Behind the Curtain**

In the realm of Redshift’s serverless offerings, the hat passed around for contributions comes with a surprising caveat. While it sits quietly, seemingly awaiting loose change, it commands a steadfast fee of 8 RPUs, amounting to 87 euros each month. It’s akin to a cover charge for an impromptu street act, where a moment’s pause out of curiosity leads to an unexpected charge, a fee for a spectacle you may merely glimpse but never truly attend.

**OpenSearch Serverless: The High Price of Invisible Resources**

Imagine OpenSearch’s serverless option as a genie’s lamp, promising endless digital wishes. Yet, this genie has a peculiar rule: a charge for unmade wishes, dreams not dreamt. For holding onto just two OCUs, the genie hands you a startling bill – a staggering 700 euros a month. It’s the price for inspiration that never strikes, for a painter’s canvas left untouched, a startling fee for a service you didn’t engage, from a genie who claims to only charge for the magic you use.

**The Quest for Transparent Serverless Billing**

As we draw the curtains on our journey through the nebula of AWS’s serverless offerings, a crucial point emerges from the mist—**a service that cannot scale down to zero cannot truly claim the serverless mantle**. True serverlessness should embody the physics of the cloud, where the gravitational pull on our wallets is directly proportional to the computational resources we actively engage. These new so-called serverless services, with their minimum resource allocation, defy the essence of serverlessness. They ascend with elasticity, yet their inability to contract completely—to scale down to the quantum state of zero—demands we christen them anew. Let us call upon AWS to redefine this nomenclature, to ensure the serverless lexicon reflects a reality where the only fixed cost is the promise of innovation, not the specter of idle resources.