For the curious, the (max) price of those instances is $6.82/hr, so 206 * 6.82 * (23/60) = $538.55 --If they did it with non-reserved instances in US East.
If they used reserved instances in USEast, it drops to $181.
Obviously there are lots of costs involved beside the final perfect run, but it's an interesting ballpark.
One of the big positives of Spark is that its architecture is amenable to having workers run on spot instances, which are even cheaper than reserved instances.
If they used reserved instances in USEast, it drops to $181.
Obviously there are lots of costs involved beside the final perfect run, but it's an interesting ballpark.