4.6 Service Costing
This section provides cost estimates for running dataspace testbed instances across different cloud providers. Approximate costs for running the Australian Dataspaces Testbed Platform on AWS are also provided.
Dataspace Virtual Machine Costs
Dataspace testbed instances can be deployed on AWS (via the Australian Dataspaces Testbed Platform), Azure, or Nectar Research Cloud. The following table summarises the estimated monthly VM operating costs:
| Cloud Provider | Instance Type | Specification | Hourly Cost* | Daily Cost (24h)* | Monthly Cost (730h)* |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AWS (Sydney) | m7i.xlarge | 4 vCPU / 16 GiB | $0.31 USD | $7.44 USD | $226.30 USD |
| AWS (Sydney) | m7i.2xlarge | 8 vCPU / 32 GiB | $0.62 USD | $14.88 USD | $452.60 USD |
| AWS (Sydney) | r7i.4xlarge | 16 vCPU / 128 GiB | $1.44 USD | $34.56 USD | $1,051.20 USD |
| Azure (Australia East) | Standard_B4ls_v2 | 4 vCPU / 8 GiB | $0.24 USD | $5.87 USD | $178.56 USD |
| Azure (Australia East) | Standard_D4s_v3 | 4 vCPU / 16 GiB | $0.31 USD | $7.38 USD | $224.55 USD |
| Nectar | m3.medium | 4 vCPU / 8 GiB | 0.114 SU | 2.74 SU | 83.22 SU |
| Nectar | m3.large | 8 vCPU / 16 GiB | 0.228 SU | 5.47 SU | 166.44 SU |
Notes:
- Listed costs are correct as of November 2025
- AWS testbeds are deployed through the Australian Dataspaces Testbed Platform
- Azure and Nectar testbeds are deployed independently using the documented procedures in this guide
- AWS costs are based on Sydney (ap-southeast-2) region on-demand pricing
- AWS and Azure costs are based on Red Hat Enterprise Linux VM pricing
- Nectar costs are measured in Service Units (SU) rather than currency
- Monthly estimates assume 730 hours (24/7 operation)
Dataspace Virtual Machine Storage (SSD) Costs
The following table summarises storage costs for dataspace testbed instances:
| Cloud Provider | Storage Type | Cost per GB/Month | Monthly Cost (64 GiB) |
|---|---|---|---|
| AWS (Sydney) | EBS General Purpose SSD (gp3) | $0.096 USD | $6.14 USD |
| Azure (Australia East) | Premium SSD (P6) | - | $10.21 USD |
Notes:
- Nectar storage is included with the instance type allocation
- AWS EBS pricing is per GB provisioned per month
- Azure Premium SSD uses fixed disk sizes (P6 = 64 GiB)
- Costs exclude snapshots, backups, and data transfer charges
Cloud Costs
For detailed cost estimates or live costs specific to your deployment, use the pricing calculators below: