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Forum Discussion
ReadyNAS Vault : great but overpriced!
Hi! Just saw the ReadyNAS Vault announcement : great news! Something I definitely need to really secure my data as my PC backups are, indeed, copied on my ReadyNAS Duo but still in the same locatio...
Hi Tim,
I just wanted to add a bit of clarification on the S3 pricing comparison. A large part of the value proposition of the Vault services is the software that allows you to schedule/automate backups, recreate a hierarchical file structure, archiving of versions, and access via simple interfaces. This are features and functionalities that S3 does not offer by itself and you would need to rely on third party software (or your own programming) to provide. The $5.95/month license fee is actually a license to use the software with 5 GB thrown in for free - certainly your math is accurate, but the $1.19 does not take into account the additional functionality.
You may feel it is semantic, but the alternative view is that you pay:
- 5.95 for use of the software
- 5 GB for free
- All other GB are $0.40/month (including the transfer in and out)
It certainly depends on how frequently you access your data (since the access charges are variable), but with any substantial amount of data in your account, the price relative to S3 is more like 2.5 X if there is no access and closer to dead even in a month where you upload and download a file (as opposed to the 6-8x, which would only hold for very small data sets with minimal access).
Lastly, if you opt for one of the yearly pre-paid plans, the pricing gets down to about $0.25/GB-month on average. With any significant access during the time period, you will actually come out ahead. In short, it seems that for an individual who is a) storing a modest amount of data, b) not planning on a lot of access, and c) willing to foresake some of the functionality, using S3 directly may make more economic sense.
We welcome the feedback and will try to make pricing more transparent as well as work on becoming more efficient so we can offer lower prices.
I just wanted to add a bit of clarification on the S3 pricing comparison. A large part of the value proposition of the Vault services is the software that allows you to schedule/automate backups, recreate a hierarchical file structure, archiving of versions, and access via simple interfaces. This are features and functionalities that S3 does not offer by itself and you would need to rely on third party software (or your own programming) to provide. The $5.95/month license fee is actually a license to use the software with 5 GB thrown in for free - certainly your math is accurate, but the $1.19 does not take into account the additional functionality.
You may feel it is semantic, but the alternative view is that you pay:
- 5.95 for use of the software
- 5 GB for free
- All other GB are $0.40/month (including the transfer in and out)
It certainly depends on how frequently you access your data (since the access charges are variable), but with any substantial amount of data in your account, the price relative to S3 is more like 2.5 X if there is no access and closer to dead even in a month where you upload and download a file (as opposed to the 6-8x, which would only hold for very small data sets with minimal access).
Lastly, if you opt for one of the yearly pre-paid plans, the pricing gets down to about $0.25/GB-month on average. With any significant access during the time period, you will actually come out ahead. In short, it seems that for an individual who is a) storing a modest amount of data, b) not planning on a lot of access, and c) willing to foresake some of the functionality, using S3 directly may make more economic sense.
We welcome the feedback and will try to make pricing more transparent as well as work on becoming more efficient so we can offer lower prices.
TimSee wrote: About a year before ReadyNAS Vault was announced, I suggsted on the Feature Request sub-forum adding Amazon S3 as a backup destination in FrontView. As some others have mentioned, ReadyNAS Vault is based off of Elephant Drive. In turn, Elephant Drive is based on Amazon S3. So basically, there's two additional "middlemen" taking their cut of the action and ReadyNAS Vault turns out to be 6 to 8x the price of what Amazon offers to their own S3 customers.
Amazon S3 = $0.15 per GB/month for storage + $0.10 per GB/month for transfer in + $0.17 per GB/month for transfer out
ReadyNAS Vault = $1.19 per GB/month for storage (first 5GB) then $0.40 per GB/month thereafter
I love the elegance of ReadyNAS Vault but it's a complete non-starter at the current price. I might pay double what Amazon charges for the convenience of integration but no more.
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