ec2
32 articles on ec2 — what drives the cost, how it is priced, and where the savings actually are.
AWS i4i vs i3 cost: newer storage-optimized instances, better value
i4i storage-optimized instances offer faster NVMe local storage and better price-performance than the older i3 generation. For high-IOPS, low-latency local-disk workloads, the newer generation is usually the cost-effective choice. Here is the comparison.
AWS Lightsail vs EC2 cost: fixed bundles vs pay-as-you-go
Lightsail sells fixed monthly bundles that include an instance, storage, and transfer allowance, which is predictable and often cheaper for small workloads. EC2 is pay-as-you-go and scales further. Here is when each wins.
Compute Savings Plans vs EC2 Instance Savings Plans: flexibility vs depth
Compute Savings Plans give ~66% off across families and Fargate/Lambda; EC2 Instance Savings Plans give ~72% locked to one family/region. Here's which to pick and how they differ from Reserved Instances.
AWS Graviton migration: where the ~20% savings actually come from
Graviton (ARM) instances list ~20% cheaper than x86 with up to 40% better price-performance, across EC2, Lambda, RDS, and more. Here's the discount, where it applies, and how small the migration usually is.
Fargate vs EC2 cost: the crossover is utilization, not the rate
Fargate costs 15-50% more per vCPU and GB than EC2, but you pay for zero idle capacity. Here's where the crossover actually is, why dense fleets favor EC2, and when Fargate's premium is the cheapest line on the bill.
m5 vs m6i vs m7i: cost and price-performance compared
Hourly rates, performance per dollar, and migration paths for AWS general-purpose EC2 families. When to migrate to m7i, when to skip straight to Graviton m7g, and when older families still make sense.
Right-sizing EC2 instances: the 20/50 rule and full process
Right-sizing cuts steady-state EC2 spend 20-40% in one pass. The 20/50 rule (average under 20%, peak under 50%) finds candidates. Here's the full pipeline: gather metrics, decide size, validate against periodic peaks, deploy in waves with monitoring.
AWS Spot instances: when do they actually save money?
Spot instances offer 50-90% discounts but can be reclaimed with 2 minutes notice. Here's when they're worth it, how to handle interruptions gracefully, and how to combine Spot with Savings Plans for the lowest total cost.