“Units” in Cloud Platforms and Services

When it comes to costing/pricing on cloud based platforms such as Azure or AWS, it is always a confusion especially for beginners what various units mean. Let us have a look at some such common unit terminologies.

  1. SKU – Stock Keeping Unit – A purchasable units in a platform. Ref – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stock_keeping_unit

  2. ACU – Azure Compute Unit – A unit used to compare compute performance across Azure SKUs. Ref – https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/virtual-machines/acu
  3. TU – Transaction Unit – Usually 10K transactions = 1 Transaction Unit
  4. DTU – Database Transaction Unit – Ref – https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-sql/database/purchasing-models#understanding-dtus
  5. eDTU – elastic DTU – Ref – https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-sql/database/purchasing-models#dtu-based-purchasing-model
  6. RU – Request Unit – Ref – https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/cosmos-db/request-units
  7. DBCU – Databricks Commit Unit – Ref – https://azure.microsoft.com/en-in/pricing/details/databricks/
  8. DBU – Databricks Unit – Ref – https://docs.databricks.com/administration-guide/capacity-planning/cmbp.html
  9. DPU – Database Processing Unit – Ref – https://aws.amazon.com/glue/pricing/

This list will be updated regularly.

How to setup AWS SES / Simple Email Service

This is a tutorial on how to setup AWS SES / Simple Email Service.

Step 1 – Login to your AWS Console, then choose Services –> Customer Engagement –> Simple Email Service

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Step 2 – Verify a New Domain

Choose “Domains” from left navigation panel, then click –> Verify a New Domain button

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Step 2.2 – Enter Domain name

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Also click checkbox Generate DKIM settings, though optional, I will be using this.

You will be displayed with a list of DNS settings in the next screen.

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Once you completed the Step 3, click close.

Step 3 – Edit DNS records

You will have to login to your domain control panel and add these.

I will be using cPanel for this exercise. Steps are almost same with any domain/hosting control panel.

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Step 4 – Wait for the domain to get verified. Click refresh icon on the right-top whenever you are impatient.

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You have nothing to do here. Just wait for some 2-5-10 minutes.

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Step 4.1 – Verify Email Address

You cannot even send a test mail, unless you have a email id verified.

Choose ‘Email Addresses’ from the left-navigation panel and click “Verify a New Email Address” button.

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Make sure you enter an already existing email id.

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A verification mail will be sent to your inbox.

There will be a URL you are expected to click, and you are verified.

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Once verified, you should be able to see the verification status updated in AWS console too.

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Step 5 – Send test mail.

Go back to Domains –> “Send a Test Mail” button.

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