EC2 Pricing

Question 1

What types of pricing models exist for EC2

Answer 1

On Demand
Reserved
Spot
Host

Question 2

What use case would be appropriate for on-demand EC2 instances

Answer 2

• No upfront payment
• Short term, spikey, or unpredictable workloads
• Test and dev

Question 3

What use case would be appropriate for reserved EC2 instances

Answer 3

• Steady state or predictable usage
• Consistent and guaranteed capacity
• Long-term capacity needs at lower cost

Question 4

Types of reserved instances

Answer 4

• Standard reserved instances (up to 75% off)
• Convertible reserved instances (up to 54% off)
• Scheduled reserved instances

Question 5

Can you schedule a reserved instance?

Answer 5

Yes. This is called a scheduled reserved instance. You are purchasing a time slot that guarantees VM availability. Scheduled RIs must be used in the time scheduled time slot.

Question 6

What use case would be appropriate for spot EC2 instances

Answer 6

• Flexible start and end times
• Non-critical workloads
• Not intended for end users (websites)
• Workloads such as batch computing, or transcoding

Question 7

If your spot pricing bid is beaten, will your EC2 instance be shut down?

Answer 7

Yes.

Question 8

What use case would be appropriate for dedicated hosts EC2 instances

Answer 8

• Regulatory and licensing requirements

Question 9

Can dedicated hosts be purchased on-demand (hourly)?

Answer 9

Yes

Question 10

What are the pricing intervals for on demand?

Answer 10

By the hour (Windows)

By the second (Linux)