AWS EC2 Instances: Understanding Types and Use Cases
Introduction
As cloud computing continues to evolve, one service that has been the cornerstone of scalability, speed, innovation, and flexibility is the Amazon Web Services Elastic Compute Cloud, or in short, AWS EC2.
EC2 instance is a virtual powerhouse that keeps the digital world running, allowing people and businesses to run, manage, and scale virtual servers easily.
Whether you are an individual running high-end applications or a business launching a startup, EC2 has a solution that is specially designed for your needs.
AWS EC2 is one of the most popular services offered by Amazon and they are of different instance types.
These instance types are optimized to fit several use cases. They are a combination of memory, storage, CPU, and networking capacity, allowing you to choose the needed resources for your applications.
In this article, we will be looking at EC2 instance pricing, types of EC2 instances, and their use cases.
Let's get started.
AWS EC2 Pricing
AWS EC2 pricing is an important aspect of the cloud computing solution. It is structured in a way that allows users to pay for only what they use, that is, you only pay for the resources you consume.
This makes it cost-effective for people, startups, and businesses. Below are the different AWS EC2 pricing models.
1. On-Demand pricing
With On-Demand Instances, there are no long-term commitments and you can pay for the computing capacity hourly or per-second.
With this, you won't bother about planning, buying, and maintaining hardware.
On-demand pricing is the default pricing option and remains one of the most flexible options. On-demand pricing is ideal for:
short-term commitment
irregular workloads that can't be interrupted.
applications tested on EC2 for the first time.
2. Spot instance pricing
This is the cheapest pricing option and it saves you 90% off on-demand pricing. Spot instance prices are not fixed and it allows you to take advantage of the spare EC2 capacity in the cloud.
But here is the thing, there is always a constant bidding process for this spare space; if another user outbids your maximum price, AWS knocks you off. Spot instance is ideal for:
workloads with flexible start and end times.
stateless and fault-tolerant applications.
3. Reserved instance pricing
Reserved instance pricing saves you up to 72% off on-demand pricing, but you need to commit to using EC2 for a 1- or 3-year period. There are three types of reserved instances - Standard, Convertible, and Scheduled reserved instances. This pricing is ideal for:
long term commitment.
applications used steadily.
applications that need reserved capacity.
4. Savings plans pricing
Savings plans are a flexible pricing structure that provide cheap prices in exchange for a commitment to consistent usage, either for 1 year or 3 years.
There are two types of savings plans - compute and EC2 instance savings plans. This option is ideal for:
long term commitment
applications with steady usage.
5. Dedicated Hosts pricing
As the name implies, this is a physical server dedicated to you. If you want to use your existing server or software license, this is the pricing option for you.
The option is also good for companies looking to maintain compliance or reduce sharing of hardware for security reasons. This pricing option is ideal for:
businesses that need to meet compliance requirements.
customers who do not want to share hardware.
users who have existing software and need to continue using it in the cloud.
Types of EC2 Instances
EC2 instances are divided into five different types:
General purpose
Compute optimized
Memory optimized
Accelerated computing
Storage optimized
1. General purpose
As the name implies, this instance can be used for general purposes and it is a good choice if you are just starting on AWS.
General purpose instances can be utilized for a wide range of diverse applications and provide a balance of memory, computing, and networking resources.
These instances are best suited for applications like web servers and code repositories that use these resources in an equal proportion.
Types of General Purpose Instances
a. A1 instance
Unlike other instances that use Intel or AMD processors, these are ARM-based. They offer high-performance block storage and support enhanced networking.
b. T instances (T4g, T3, T3a, T2)
They support burstable mode to accommodate increased CPU demand whenever and for how long it is needed.
T-instance generations each have special features to offer. For example, the T4g uses the AWS Graviton2 processors, and they are 40% more efficient than T3 processors.
c. M instances (M7g, M7i, M7i-flex, M7a, M6g, M6i, M6in, M6a, M5, M5n, M5zn, M5a, M4)
The oldest generation of the M family like the M4 was powered by Intel Xeon scalable processors and it has improved as recent members of the family use the Arm-based Graviton processors.
M7g, the latest generation, is powered by an AWS Graviton3 processor and it offers the best price performance for any general purpose application at the moment.
d. Mac instances (mac1.metal, mac2.metal)
All Apple developers now have access to the flexibility, scalability, and cost advantages of AWS, thanks to the availability of Amazon EC2 Mac instances.
You can make apps for the iPhone, Mac, iPad, Apple TV, Apple Watch, and Safari by using EC2 Mac instances. Developers can create, build, test, and sign applications that need the Xcode IDE using these access points to macOS.
Use Cases
The A1 instances are suited for containerized microservices, web servers, and applications written in open-source languages like Python or Java
The T instances are perfect for microservices, small and medium databases, code repositories, low-latency applications
The M family is suitable for general purpose workloads like virtual desktops, microservices, gaming servers, batch processing, video streaming, etc
While the Mac family can be used to develop, create, test, and sign in to any Apple-based OS workloads on the Xcode IDE.
2. Compute optimized
Compute optimized instances are suitable for applications that require a lot of computing power and high-performance processors.
Types of compute optimized instances
a. C7 instances (C7g, C7gn)
These instances are equipped with Arm-based AWS Graviton3 processors. C7g offers the best price performance for any compute-intensive application in the cloud.
b. C6 instances (C6g, C6gn, C6i, C6in)
These are powered by AWS Gravitation2 processors. For compute-intensive applications, they give 40% better price performance than the C5 instances.
c. C5 instances (C5, C5d, C5n, C5a)
These instances are powered by 2nd generation Intel Xeon Scalable Processors. They are specially designed for applications that need raw computing power and they have 25% speed improvement than C4.
d. C4 instance
This is powered by an Intel Xeon Scalable Processor. It is the oldest generation of the compute-optimized instances.
Use Cases
Compute optimized instances are ideal for video encoding, High Performance Computing (HPC), distributed analytics, machine learning interference, gaming, CPU-based artificial intelligence, high-performance front end-fleets, high-performance science and engineering applications, MMO gaming, media transcoding, highly scalable multiplayer gaming, scientific modeling, and network appliances.
3. Memory optimized
As the name implies, these instances are used to quickly execute memory-intensive workloads with large datasets. Data mining and Big data analytics are examples of data sets that require large memory.
Types of Memory optimized instances
a. R7 instances (R7g, R7iz, R7a)
While R7iz and R7a are powered by 4th generation Intel Xeon Scalable Processors, R7g is equipped with AWS Graviton3 processors and it offers the best price performance for any memory-optimized application.
When compared to R6 instances, they offer 20% higher enhanced networking bandwidth.
b. R6 Instances (R6g, R6i, R6in, R6a)
R6i, R6in, and R6a are powered by 3rd generation Intel Xeon Scalable processors while R6g is powered by AWS Graviton2 processors.
They offer 20% higher memory bandwidth per CPU than R5 instances.
c. R5 instances (R5, R5n, R5b, R5a)
These instances are powered by 2nd generation Intel Xeon Scalable processors and offer better price per GiB RAM when compared to R4 instances.
d. X2 instances (X2gd, X2idn, X2iedn, X2iezn)
X2gd is powered by AWS Graviton2 processors while others in the family are powered by 3rd generation Intel Xeon Processors.
They offer 50% better price performance when compared to X1 instances and they are good for memory-intensive applications with a wide range
e. X1 instances (X1, X1e)
X1 instances are equipped with Intel Xeon Processors and are optimized for large datasets.
f. High memory instances
As the name implies, this instance gives you the highest capacity of RAM. Its memory ranges from 3 to 24 TiB and it can be used to run large in-memory databases like SAP HANA database in the cloud.
It is important to note that only dedicated host users can use high memory instances.
g. Z1d instances
Powered by an Intel Xeon Scalable processor, this instance provides both high computing and high memory. They remain the fastest cloud instance.
Use Cases
The R and X instances are suitable for open-source databases, Real-time big data analytics, in-memory caches, real-time caching servers, and Electronic design automation.
High memory is used to run large enterprise databases like the installation of SAP HANA in-memory database.
Z1d is ideal for specific RDS workloads with high per-core licensing costs and electronic design automation (EDA).
4. Accelerated Computing
These instances use hardware accelerators like Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) and Graphics Processing Units (GPU) to make compute-intensive applications perform more efficiently.
Applications that require parallel processing, like floating-point calculations, graphics processing, or data pattern matching, are well-suited for this instance type.
Types of Accelerated Computing Instances
a. P instances (P5, P4, P3, P2)
The P instances are powered by the Intel Xeon Processors with the latest member, P5, using the 3rd generation.
This latest GPU instance offers the highest performance for High performance computing (HPC) and deep learning in Amazon EC2.
b. DL1 instance
This uses Gaudi accelerators. When compared to current GPU-based instances, it offers up to 40% better price performance for training deep learning models.
c. Trn1 instance
These instances offer a 50% higher price-performance ratio than comparable AWS instances and are perfect for high-performance deep learning training, thanks to their AWS Trainium chips.
d. Inf instances (Inf2, Inf1)
Inf instances are used by AWS inferentia2 accelerators and they are built to support deep learning inference applications. The Inf2 instance has more computing power, higher accelerator, and higher throughput than the Inf1 instance.
e. G instances (G5g, G5, G4dn, G4ad, G3)
Apart from G5g which is powered by AWS Graviton2 Processors, all other instances in the G family are powered by Intel Xeon Scalable processors.
The G5g provides the best price performance for graphics workloads (e.g. Android game streaming) in the cloud.
f. F1 instance
F1 instances are powered by Intel Xeon Scalable Processors and they provide customizable hardware acceleration with FPGAs.
g. VT1 instance
Powered by 2nd generation Intel Xeon Scalable Processors, these instances provide low-cost transcoding for live video streams while accelerating real-time video transcoding.
Use Cases
The Accelerated computing instances can be used by different ranges of applications. For example:
The P family can be used in Generative AI applications, video and image generation, machine learning, seismic analysis, speech recognition, High Performance Computing (HPC), and more.
The DL1 and Trn1 instances are used in Deep learning training, Natural Language Processing (NLP), Search recommendation, and more.
The G family is used for Graphics-intensive applications like video rendering, remote workstations, android game streaming, autonomous vehicle simulations, etc
The F1 instances are used for genomic research, and financial and big data analysis while VT1 instances are used for just-in-time transcoding, video conferencing, and live event broadcast.
5. Storage optimized
The use of this instance should not be rocket science as its name gave it away.
The storage optimized instance is primarily designed for high-demand storage workloads that can perform high, sequential read and write operations on the local storage's large database.
They are designed to provide applications with thousands of low-latency and random I/O operations per second (IOPS).
Types of Storage Optimized Instances
a. I instance (I4g, Im4gn, Is4gen, I4i, I3, I3en)
I4g, Im4gn, and Is4gen are all powered by AWS Graviton2 Processors while I4i, I3en, and I3en are powered by Intel Xeon Scalable Processors.
This family's instance storage is SSD-backed and has been optimized for low latency and extremely high random I/O performance.
I4g is the latest generation in the family and it offers the best price performance of any storage-intensive task in the cloud.
b. D instances (D2, D3, D3en)
The D instances are powered by Intel Xeon Scalable Processors and equipped with HDD storage, they provide the lowest cost per disk throughput when compared to other instances.
c. H1 instance
H1 instances are powered by Intel Xeon processors and provide fast disc performance. They are the family with the lowest storage density providing about 16TB HDD storage.
Use Cases
I instances are suited for I/O intensive applications that require low latency workloads and high transaction volumes.
They are best used for transactional databases (relational and non-relational databases), Amazon OpenSearch Service, and real-time analytics.
D instances are suited for data warehousing, distributed file systems, and data-processing applications
While the H1 instances work well for data-intensive applications that need fast throughput and sequential access to large amounts of data.
Comparison of Amazon EC2 Types
The table below gives a brief comparison between the EC2 instances.
| Instance Type | General Purpose | Compute Optimized | Memory Optimized | Accelerated Computing | Storage Optimized |
| Instance Name (Best price performing instance) | M7g | C7g | R7g | P5 | I4g |
| Main function | Balance memory, compute, and storage | High computing power | Memory-intensive workloads | GPU-based compute workloads | Storage-intensive workloads |
| Use cases | High Performance Computing, distributed analytics, scientific modeling, etc. | High Performance Computing, distributed analytics, scientific modeling, etc | Open-source database, in-memory database, Real-time big data analytics, etc. | Floating-point calculations, graphics processing, data pattern matching, machine learning, etc. | Relational database, Non-relational database, data warehousing, data analytics. |
Conclusion
AWS EC2 instances provide a flexible and scalable solution for different computing needs. Organizations can improve the performance, cost-effectiveness, and resource efficiency of their infrastructure by knowing the various instance types and their corresponding use cases.
AWS EC2 can provide you with anything you need, whether you need powerful computing resources for data analysis, specialized GPU instances for machine learning, or memory-intensive applications for databases.
AWS EC2 is an essential part of modern cloud computing strategy because it gives organizations the freedom to meet their evolving computing needs by helping them to simply scale up or down as needed and choosing from a variety of instance types.