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Difficulty: HardAWS Pricing Models

A software development firm needs to deploy a continuous integration and testing server environment that will run 24/7 for exactly six weeks to support a critical client release. The test suite is highly sensitive to interruptions, and any failure requires the entire test pipeline to restart from scratch. Which Amazon EC2 pricing model is the most cost-effective choice for this workload?

  1. A
    Spot Instances
  2. On-Demand InstancesAnswer
  3. C
    EC2 Instance Savings Plans with a 1-year commitment
  4. D
    Standard Reserved Instances with a 1-year commitment

Answer

On-Demand Instances
On-Demand Instances are the most cost-effective because the workload is short-term (six weeks) and cannot tolerate interruptions. While Savings Plans and Reserved Instances offer hourly discounts, they require a minimum commitment of one year, meaning the company would pay for idle capacity for the remaining 46 weeks, resulting in a higher total cost. Spot Instances are unsuitable because they can be interrupted by AWS, which would cause the sensitive test suite to fail and restart.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Analyze the workload duration and continuity requirements.
The workload runs continuously 24/7 but only for a duration of six weeks.
To determine if long-term commitment models are financially viable.
2
Assess the workload's tolerance for interruptions.
The workload cannot tolerate interruptions, as any failure requires restarting the entire pipeline from scratch.
To evaluate if Spot Instances can be safely utilized.
3
Compare the total cost of On-Demand vs. commitment-based models.
A one-year commitment model requires paying for twelve months of usage. Even with hourly discounts, paying for a full year for a six-week project is far more expensive than paying On-Demand rates for only six weeks.
To identify the pricing model that minimizes total expenditures while meeting technical requirements.

Key Concept

Matching workload characteristics (duration, interruption tolerance, predictability) to the optimal AWS EC2 pricing model.
Estimated Time:2m 0s
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Topics

AWS Pricing Models

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