The IBM Tax

The IBM tax laid bare, from a promotional spam Amazon sent me:

The hourly prices for Amazon EC2 running IBM are as follows:

• Amazon EC2 running IBM DB2 Express – starting at $0.38/hour
• Amazon EC2 running IBM DB2 Workgroup – starting at $1.31/hour
• Amazon EC2 running IBM Informix Dynamic Server Express – starting at $0.38/hour
• Amazon EC2 running IBM Informix Dynamic Server Workgroup – starting at $1.31/hour
• Amazon EC2 running IBM WebSphere sMash – starting at $0.50/hour
• Amazon EC2 running IBM Lotus Web Content Management – starting at $2.48/hour
• Amazon EC2 running IBM WebSphere Portal Server and IBM Lotus Web Content Management Server – starting at $6.39/hour

Interesting prices. How could it possibly be that WebSphere + Lotus Web Content Management is worth $6.39 per hour? Who could justify that price? It’s really inconceiveable, though I have to admit I don’t know enough to judge for sure. My bullshit meter is pegged at 11 though, and it’s pretty reliable.