EC2 Pricing Models

Question 1

On Demand

Answer 1

• Least Commitment
• Only pay per hour
• Short-term, spiky, unpredictable workloads
• Cannot be interrupted
• For first time apps
• No up front payment

Question 2

Reserved

Answer 2

• Reserved Instances (RI)
• Best Long Term Savings - Up to 75% Off
• Steady state or predictable usage
• Can be shared between multiple accounts
• Unused RIs can be sold
• Commit to EC2 over a 1 or 3 year term
• Can resell unused reserved instances
• Commit via contract - longer the contract, longer the savings
• Standard, convertible, and scheduled

Question 3

Spot

Answer 3

• Biggest Savings - Up to 90%
• Request spare computing capacity
• Flexible start and end times
• Can handle interruptions (server randomly stopping)
• For non-critical background jobs
• Like expedia for hotels to fill space
• Can be terminated by AWS at any time

Question 4

Dedicated

Answer 4

• Most Expensive
• Dedicated Servers
• Can be on demand or reserved
• When you need a guarantee of isolate hardware
• Used for strict licensing (large enterprises don’t want to share)
• Virtual isolation (like an apartment but with instances)
• Physical isolation separates customers (like house)

Question 5

EC2 Default pricing

Answer 5

On Demand