Post by regisphilbin on Jul 31, 2018 17:48:35 GMT
This thread was started as a supplement to the CETEC blog about ITAR options that was posted 7/30/2018 on their website. As mentioned there, CETEC ERP instances are hosted on the Google Cloud, which is not ITAR compliant. Since the data might be stored out of the country, that would also mean that ITAR information *could* be accessible to foreign (to the US) persons.
So that being said, We're currently evaluating the AWS Gov Cloud Option at Amazon, to host our CETEC ERP instance. The AWS Gov Cloud is purported to be ITAR compliant (meaning that the data is warehoused in the US and only accessible to US citizens or those with Green Cards). There are different levels of Support when you sign up for AWS cloud, but you can always start with the "FREE" level which has limited support options.
So what do we have to do to set up the CETEC ERP system in an AWS Gov Cloud Instance?
CETEC ERP - $3500 One time Fee to configure and install on AWS cloud instance.
CETEC ERP - $99/mo for Cloud support / Upgrades, etc.
AMAZON AWS Account with Support Plan (from Free - $$$)
AMAZON EC2 on AWS Gov Cloud - an EC2 Instance. (~$140/mo or ~$70/mo on 3 yr reserve)
AMAZON EBS on AWS Gov Cloud - Additional Hard Disk Space for File storage / Backups / etc. (~$50/mo for each 1 TB SSD) - Optional
First, we're figuring out that we'll need to host the CETEC ERP application and Database in an EC2 (Elastic Compute Cloud) Instance. Go to the AWS Calculator and you can view and price all the different Amazon cloud offerings. First thing is to select the correct "Gov Cloud (US)" location to get the correct pricing. Then Select the EC2 tab on the left, then "+" to add an EC2 Compute Instance. Under Type, you'll see all the different CPU/RAM combinations. Amazon describe all the different "instance Types" here as they're optimized for different parameters such as CPU, storage, network speed. In general, you'll find out that the Gov Cloud pricing is about 30% more expensive compared to the standard offerings (for the same product). Our research has found the i3/R4 Instances to fit the best for this application. Here's what Amazon says:
I3 instances are well suited for the following applications:
- High frequency online transaction processing (OLTP) systems
- Low latency Ad-Tech serving applications
- NoSQL databases
- Relational databases
- Cache for in-memory databases (for example, Redis)
- Data warehousing applications
- Low latency Ad-Tech serving applications
Since currently on the "small" side of SMB (5-10 users at the most), we won't be needing TB and TB of data. Going with the minimum recommended specs from CETEC, the i3.xLarge option seems to be a good fit. It is based on a Quad Core, 32GB RAM, 1TB Nvme Hard Disk Virtual Instance with 10+ Gbps network connection. If you need more storage than the 1TB, or want to segregate your DB from your Data files, you'll want to also add EBS (Elastic Block Storage) which is extensible hard disk space.
So, as an example, for 5 users, the pricing would be:
5 x $40/user = $200/month
$99/mo. = $99 / month Cloud Support
$0 / mo. = $0 / month - Basic AWS Support Plan
$150/ mo. = $150 / month - AWS EC2 Instance (i3.XLarge with 1TB storage -3 yr plan.)
So with the standard Google Cloud option, the cost would be just the $200/month or $2400/yr.
If the ITAR option is necessary for your organization, my initial estimate is that the cost would be closer to $450/month or $5400/yr.
As we move forward with this option, i'll let you know how it works out compared the default Google cloud solution.