Amazon API Gateway 推出分級收費 (降價)

Amazon API Gateway 推出分級收費:「Amazon API Gateway Announces Tiered Pricing」。

原先的費用不變,大多數的地區是超過 333M reqs/month 的部分降價了... (不過雪梨跟南非是超過 1B reqs/month,而且北卡超過 333M 的部分也只降個零頭,實際比較深的折扣還是在 1B),333M reqs/month 這個量換算下來需要 11.1M reqs/day,平均值要 128 reqs/sec,看起來是設計給整個站都搬上去的折扣方案 (不然就是本身量就超大)。

EC2 提供短期 RI 選項...

Amazon EC2 推出了短期 RI 選項:「Amazon EC2 now offers On-Demand Capacity Reservations」。

最早的 RI 設計包括了「保證一定開的起來」與「折扣」,但後來 AWS 大概是發現大家都是要「折扣」而不是保證開的起來,所以就開放了只有 discount 的部份。把原來有保證一定開的起來的部份變成 Zonal Reserved Instances。

不過 Zonal Reserved Instances 最少要一年 (有對應的折扣),這次規劃的 On-Demand Capacity Reservations 可以隨時取消,但是就沒折扣了:

Previously in order to achieve a capacity reservation, customers had to leverage Zonal Reserved Instances and commit to that capacity for a minimum of one year. Now with On-Demand Capacity Reservations, customers can reserve the exact capacity they need, in the location they need, and can keep it only for as long as they need it.

不過費用計算上會組合已經買的 Regional RI,如果沒被用掉的話還是可以將對應的折扣拿進來用:

If you have Regional RI discounts, they will automatically apply to any matching Capacity Reservation. This gives you the flexibility to selectively add capacity reservations and still get the Regional RI discounts for that usage.

算是對需要「保證開的起來」的單位提供短期的彈性,實際上後面應該是去 spot instance 那邊踢一些機器出來?XD

AWS 讓你可以禁止 RI 跨帳號計算了...

現在 AWS 讓你可以設定,是否允許 Reserved Instance (RI) 跨帳號使用:「Customize your organization’s AWS credit and Reserved Instance (RI) discount sharing using new billing preferences」。

以往是優先用在自己帳號,但如果有剩的話可以挪去其他帳號用。這樣雖然比較省錢,但有時候會造成帳務的「困擾」:

Historically, AWS has maximized customer savings by applying credits and RI discounts first to the account that owned the credit or RI lease and then distributing the remainder, if any, to qualifying usage incurred by accounts in the same organization. While this approach had the potential of lowering the overall bill, customers were unable to control if, and how, discounts were applied across organizational lines.

現在則是可以關掉:

To provide greater flexibility, customers can now disable AWS credit sharing across all accounts in their organization. This ensures that only the account that owns a credit, or has previously redeemed a credit, receives the associated benefit.

也可以分開設定:

You can also designate a set of accounts for which RI discount sharing is disabled, while continuing to share RI discounts among the rest of the accounts in your organization.

這樣雖然會比較貴,但這其實反應到某些組織文化上的問題啦...

Google Cloud Platform 也開始玩 Reserved Instances 的想法了 (Committed use discounts)

看到 Google Cloud PlatformGoogle Cloud Engine 也開始提供 RI 的想法了:「Committed use discounts」。

本來就有 Sustained use discounts,當你用到一定的量時就會自動折扣,不需要人工介入,不過對於 7x24 開機的 instance 來說,能得到的折扣還是比不上 AWS 的 RI。

這次 Committed use discounts 折扣的方式跟 Amazon EC2 類似,一樣是一年與三年。計價方式不同的原因是因為 GCE 提供 custom type,使用者可以自己選 vCPU 與 Memory,所以折扣的方式也是圍繞在這兩個選擇上規劃。

不過小台機器是不提供折扣的,這點就不像 AWS 上所有種類的機器都可以買 RI:

You can only use committed use discounts for predefined machine types and custom machine types. Small machine types, such as f1-micro and g1-small, are not eligible for committed use discounts.

目前是 beta:

This is a Beta release of Committed Use Discounts. This feature is not covered by any SLA or deprecation policy and may be subject to backward-incompatible changes.

超強的萬用信用卡 Plastc 的原型工程版出來了...

剛剛收到 Plastc 通知信說他們更新消息,有 prototype 的示範影片可以看了:「Plastc Prototype in Action」。

先看他們之前的宣傳影片:

而這是工程版的 prototype 示範影片:

比起以前嘴砲來的可信度高多了,雖然還是很有可能沒出貨...

Pre-order (預購) 是 USD$155,而寄到台灣要多加 USD$10 的費用,所以是 USD$165。我就當跟當初買挖礦機的風險一樣好了,沒預期會拿到東西。

如果你有興趣,而且也願意承擔最後有可能沒出貨的風險,可以用我的連結購買:https://share.plastc.com/x/NO0S0J,我跟你都會拿到 USD$20 的好處:

They’ll receive a $20 discount when they pre-order Plastc, and you’ll receive a $20 Amazon gift card with your Plastc Card.

Update:補充其他人對這個產品的反面看法。

Hacking Team 購買 Flash Exploit 的信件

前情提要:「Hacking Team 被黑而洩漏出來的資料」。

在「How a Russian hacker made $45,000 selling a 0-day Flash exploit to Hacking Team」這邊提到了 Hacking Team 被黑而洩漏出來的信件,透漏了俄羅斯的人賣 Flash Exploit 給 Hacking Team 的過程。

從內容就可以看出不同的賣法,包括「首次」與「獨家」都是可以談的條件:

1) The price is US$45,000.00 for the non-exclusive sale of any special discount for the "first" deal together will be greatly appreciated :)

然後有些東西是另外加密通信的:

The two men then exchanged PGP keys, which they used to exchange a number of encrypted messages, presumably one including how Toporov would like to be paid.

然後還有 invoice:

而買了幾個建立關係後,後面還會有 discount:

Now your discount on the next buy is -5k and -10k is for a third bug.

最近應該會有不少人跳下去解讀洩漏出來的資料...