The AWS Free Tier promises to let you access the AWS platform, products, and services. While this may seem enticing, it can actually harm your organization in the long run.
AWS Becomes More Expensive As You Grow
First, you must first understand why AWS is likely not a good long-term fit for your business.
AWS starts off free, and after your first year of free services is still decently priced. But, as your business grows and begins to use more resources and more bandwidth costs will rise significantly. Eventually, you’ll find yourself paying 4x more than a comparable set up elsewhere!
Now, you may be thinking to yourself: I’ll just switch when it gets that expensive. But, here’s where things get tricky.
Platform Specific Language and Vendor Lock-In
Amazon does not have any contracts or fees to keep customers from switching away after using AWS Free Tier. That doesn’t mean they can’t make it difficult for you to leave.
Enter, Platform Specific Language (PSL). PSL is a term used to describe a proprietary development language. The problem with PSLs is that they force you to learn new knowledge. Make it difficult to migrate away from that platform.
Another issue with PSL is that it limits your choices of external vendors. Don’t be fooled, PSL is nothing but a clever trick used to keep you locked into your service.
Imagine that you’ve used AWS for free for a year now, and when looking to switch you realize none of the knowledge you or your team have gained will be transferable, and on top of that you may even have to start from scratch when switching. This is the point at which most businesses give up on switching and stay on AWS.
The Consequences of AWS Free Tier
It may not seem like it at first, but the more you use AWS the more difficult it’ll be to switch away from the services. This is currently one of the biggest problems with Amazon, and it, along with vendor lock-in, is becoming a major concern.
Past a certain point, switching away from AWS will become too difficult and so you’ll stay, but the cost of staying is no less significant. Many CEOs describe how they’ve paid millions more for services because they were using AWS.
When you begin to use a lot of resources and bandwidth, AWS will begin to negatively impact your bottom line. The cost of the services will make maintaining profitability more difficult, but it will be too hard to switch away from the platform that you may wait for years.
Eventually, the cost of using AWS becomes too great, and you’re forced to switch, but the lower profit margins during those prior years will have stunted your business’s growth. And, that is the ultimate cost of AWS. Your business’s potential will be lowered because you’ll be spending money on hosting that could have been spent elsewhere like sales, marketing or product development.
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