Workspace costs

Workspace costs

DRE Workspaces cost money. Your workspace incurs costs for:
  1. File storage,
  2. VMs, and
  3. Data flow and Azure Threat Protection
In general, costs are dependent upon your usage: the more you use, the more you eventually pay. In this article , we first present a cost estimator tool with which you can estimate your workspace costs in advance. Afterwards, we provide more information on each of the different cost components. 
When you already have workspace, you're able to keep track of your costs using Setting up budgets.

Disclaimer: you are yourself responsible for managing your research budget and keeping track of workspace costs!
Whilst we try to keep the article update, the listed information is dependent on policies and tariffs that may change over time. No rights can therefore be derived from this information. 

Cost estimator

Below, you can find our Cost estimator with which you can create an estimation of how much your workspace would cost each month.  Based on a number of inputs, the estimator will provide you with an approximate amount that you'll spend each month. All the components are included, except Data flow (which is free for workspaces under SURF contract).

Part of the costs of your workspace may be covered centrally by your organisation. This cost calculator does not take that into account. Please inquire with your local support person whether a compensation arrangement applies to your workspace.
The estimator tool was updated on January 31st 2024. It now includes the costs of OS disks too. 




Cost of storage

File storage is charged per Gb per month: currently €0,064/Gb/month (incl.). So the more data you store in your workspace (Gb's, Tb's), the more costs your workspace incurs. Also keep in mind that you pay per month. The longer you occupy storage, the more cumulative costs you make over time. So when you don't need certain files anymore, transfer them to a local storage location (e.g. those of your institution), and delete the files in the workspace. 

Cost of Virtual Machines

The Virtual Machines (VMs) in your workspace account for two cost components:
  1. OS disks costs
  2. Runtime VM costs
Each VM in your workspace needs on OS disk. This disk stores the Operating System and other software. Y ou pay a standard amount for each OS disk per month. Dependent on the type, the OS disk may vary in price. The default OS disk in DRE is the E10 - perfectly suitable for most use cases. Each of these E10 disks cost about €10/month.
On top of the OS disk costs, there are costs associated with running the VM itself. There are different types of VM, which vary in price per hour.  Some VM types are small and cheap, whereas others are larger and also more expensive. In the end, both VM types and the total number of hours that the VM is on, result in a final figure per month. It's smart to shut down VMs that are no longer in use.

Data flow

When you upload and download files from your DRE workspace, you generate data flow. There are two cost components:
  1. Costs for the data flow itself
  2. Costs due to virus and malware scanning of the data (Azure Threat Protection)
The data flow itself may cost a little bit of money per Gb/Tb. However, for workspaces under institutions that have a SURF contract for Azure, data flow is free.  SURF already includes data flow costs in their subscriptions to participating institutions. In practice, this means that uploading data does not cause additional costs. Moreover, there are no additional costs if you move data outside the DRE platform, e.g. when archiving data after using DRE for analysis.

Costs due to virus and malware scanning of the data amounts to about € 0.15 per GB. Uploading 100 GB for example incurs a one time cost of €15. See Azure Threat Protection (ATP).

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