My Heavy Utilization Reserved Medium-sized SQL Server Standard instance on AWS is currently running to the tune of $0.279 per instance hour, after the upfront $1,620.00 not including EBS storage and snapshots (bandwidth is a non-issue as this is only accessible to other AWS instances).

I had no choice (and it made sense) but to purchase a reserved instance given what Amazon is charging for standard SQL Server instances ($0.744 per/instance hour), well, that and in any case I needed it running 24/7.

Considering I am tied to SQL Server I need to look at some alternatives to AWS, it was a nice way to bridge a gap and quickly migrate after acquiring a new application but when the year is up, the viability of this AWS product is going to be scrutinized.