How to choose the right Amazon EC2 instance type

Tuesday, 22 March 2022 09:30

How to choose the right Amazon EC2 instance type

By NAKIVO

GUEST OPINION: When you try to launch an EC2 instance, there are several options to consider. Since there are so many different varieties, it can be challenging to make the right choice. Amazon Web Services are very helpful when it comes to their instance types.

If you talk to someone with plenty of experience working in the Amazon world on a larger scale, they will probably be running an Instance type that you have never even heard of before. Before diving into these types, you must understand what the amazon ec2 instance is. The article below will attempt to demystify some of the different instance types.

Amazon EC2 Instance

AWS has been around in the cloud services industry for a while, and it has been helping people fulfil their computing limitations. AWS EC2 introduces all the current innovations in IT and cloud computing. These help businesses leverage from getting rid of hardware units that make up their IT infrastructure. It helps enterprises host their IT services through the cloud. This leads to increased storage space, lower maintenance costs, and faster operations.

Overall, the EC2 Instance makes it easier for IT managers to scale up or down. Another way it helps save costs is by allowing users to pay only for their services.  Ultimately, it lets users complete monetizing rights and control of their services. All these services are highly secure. By utilizing the EC2 Instance, users have the flexibility to run operations from anywhere in the world.

Amazon Web Services comprises a comprehensive set of services that you can find under different domains. These can include computing, migration, storage, network, management tools, security, media services, application integration, etc. Out of these, the EC2 domain falls inside the computing capacity sector. To define it in simpler terms, EC2 is a web service that eases the life of IT developers. It does this by allowing them access to a safe and resizable computing capacity, which they can safely run on the cloud. 

Choosing the Right EC2 Type

The dimensions of the EC2 types upon which users make their pick include virtual CPUs, Storage, Network performance, and storage. These four types are the primary components that dictate your choice over ec2 instance types. For instance, if your business’s workload is very CPU intensive, there are suitable instances for those workloads.

If your procedures depend highly on storage-intensive work, instances will include I and D type. However, if your operations are memory intensive, you must choose between an R-type and X-type. Similarly, you also can choose instances from the network performance dimensions. 

Criteria

Keep in mind that not all instances support enhanced networking. Some instances have local SSDs, which may not cater to people with higher IOPS requirements. On the other hand, some Instances are better suited for database workloads, while others can better accommodate Hadoop or Big data hosting. Thus, your requirements and criteria will help you choose the best ec2 instance type.

Instance Families/ Categories

Below, are the categories of the different EC2 instances.

• Accelerated Computing (P,G,F)
• Memory Optimized (R,X)
• General Purpose (T,M)
• Compute Optimized (C)
• Storage Optimized (I,D)

EC2 Instance Types

If you branch out each category, you will have to look at the different instance types. You can choose from general-purpose instances, compute-optimized instances, GPU enabled instances, Storage and IO optimized, and Memory-optimized. You must opt for one of these instance types based on your needs and requirements.

Use Cases

Suppose you are running a low traffic website with a small database. It will be better to opt for a midsize database, which is generally 14 M.  If you are going for a video coding option, which is high-performance front end fleets, then consider going for a C-type.  

For Data warehousing log and data processing applications, you have to go for either I or D. If your management includes the high intensity of 3D applications and machine learning, you will have to select a different category and type. These types represent the relationships between the instance family and use cases. 

Depending on the use case you need, you will have to pick between the different instance family and names.  This will involve a thorough look at instance naming and understanding different amazon ec2 instance types.

EC2 Instance Type Naming 

The names of different instances can be confusing at first glance. This is why you need to break them down into different elements. For example, the name “C4 LARGE” reveals different details about the instances.  The letter C is the instance generation, while 4 is the instance size, and then large is the size.

In other words, the opening letter represents the generation of the instance, while the number reveals the family to which that instance belongs.  The size is quite self-explanatory within the name. This is how the naming convention applies to different instances. The naming conventions allow you to differentiate between instances and efficiently carry out an ec2 instance comparison.

EC2 Instance Backups

If you wish to utilize Amazon's EC2 cloud services to grow your business, you must do it carefully. This relates to taking the right backup and replication approach so that your EC2 instances can be recovered in the face of an unwanted disaster. NAKIVO offers backup and replication solutions and integrates an incremental backup to the ec2 instances. Visit their website to learn more about their systematic backup.

Final Thoughts

As you can see, making appropriate ec2 instance types comparison is crucial when selecting the best one for your business. To carry out a comparative analysis, you must learn to identify each one and figure out what each family, class and use case represents.

Read 176 times

PROMOTE YOUR WEBINAR ON ITWIRE

MORE INFO HERE!

INTRODUCING ITWIRE TV

SEE WHAT'S ON ITWIRE TV NOW!