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Identity and access management (IAM) is a critical function of IT organizations. The cloud revolutionizes the delivery of software and infrastructure, thus enabling new IAM solutions like AWS® Cloud Directory. As IT admins evaluate AWS Cloud Directory, pricing is often a leading concern. Let’s break down the AWS Cloud Directory pricing model.
What is AWS Cloud Directory?
Before diving into pricing, it’s best to first understand what AWS Cloud Directory offers.
AWS Cloud Directory is part of Amazon Web Services’ growing suite of identity management solutions. It’s effectively a database that manages hierarchical relationships between objects such as users, groups, locations, and other entities. Unlike many directory services, however, AWS Cloud Directory doesn’t handle authentication processes, which presents an issue.
Directory services often serve as the core tool for authentication and authorization for users accessing IT resources such as systems, applications, files, and networks. Beyond that, many directory services provide system management capabilities as well. Thus, for organizations seeking a cloud directory service of this kind, AWS Cloud Directory may not be the best bet.
Regardless, organizations looking to manage objects via the cloud can still benefit from AWS Cloud Directory. Additionally, the service features API call capabilities, which IT admins can leverage to automate processes like the creation, management, and removal of objects. And when it comes to pricing, admins can enjoy the flexibility of AWS’ delivery model, as detailed below.
AWS Cloud Directory Pricing
AWS Cloud Directory is priced a la carte, as-a-Service, with payments made monthly (or annually at a slight discount). As such, organizations pay per gigabyte for the amount of cloud storage they leverage. Organizations also pay for the amount of API calls they use, which is multiplied by the strength of their consistency. The final mark on an AWS Cloud Directory bill is decided by an organization’s region, which affects the bottom line of both storage and API costs.
Free AWS Cloud Directory
As a part of the AWS Free Tier, Amazon Web Services offers a free version of AWS Cloud Directory. Free AWS Cloud Directory provides a baseline amount of storage and API calls, which can suit smaller organizations just fine.
Another benefit is that AWS Cloud Directory’s complimentary storage and API calls roll over into a paid plan. This means organizations only have to pay for any usage which exceeds the baseline limit. Since AWS Cloud Directory pricing is fairly inexpensive to begin with, these complimentary services make AWS Cloud Directory a cost-effective choice.
The Problem with AWS Cloud Directory
Although the offering is relatively inexpensive, there’s one key issue with AWS Cloud Directory. As stated earlier, it can’t compare to the IAM and system management capabilities of most other directory services. In its purest form, it’s an organizational database tool.
Many of today’s IT admins are looking for identity management on par with Microsoft Active Directory –– the most popular on-prem directory service — and ideally delivered from the cloud. While AWS Cloud Directory is technically termed a directory, it doesn’t feature near the required amount of IAM functionality for most IT organizations.
There is, however, a cloud directory service that reimagines Active Directory for the modern era. With this solution, IT admins can manage their users, systems, applications, networks, file servers, infrastructure, and more, all from a single cloud console. As such, end users are granted a single set of credentials they can leverage to access all of the above, creating a True Single Sign-On™ experience.
This comprehensive cloud directory service is also offered a la carte, as-a-Service, so IT organizations only have to pay for what they need most with none of the heavy lifting. The modern cloud directory service also features a free plan, allowing up to 10 complimentary users for life without entering any credit card information.
Learn More
If your organization needs a comprehensive cloud IAM solution at a competitive price, consider JumpCloud® Directory-as-a-Service®. You can try JumpCloud absolutely free, or schedule a free personalized demo to get your feet wet before jumping in.
