Question

Difficulty: MediumAWS Pricing Models

A media streaming company is launching two new services on Amazon EC2. The first is an analytics application that must run continuously 24/7 with a highly predictable CPU utilization pattern over a three-year period. The second is a video transcoding microservice that processes user-uploaded media files; these jobs are stateless, store intermediate progress in Amazon S3, and can be interrupted or restarted without data loss. Which two Amazon EC2 pricing models should the company select to meet these requirements at the lowest cost?

  1. Reserved Instances to host the continuously running analytics applicationAnswer
  2. Spot Instances to run the video transcoding microserviceAnswer
  3. C
    On-Demand Instances to host the continuously running analytics application
  4. D
    Spot Instances to host the continuously running analytics application
  5. E
    Dedicated Hosts to run the video transcoding microservice

Answer

The company should select Reserved Instances for the continuously running analytics application and Spot Instances for the video transcoding microservice.
For the analytics application, Reserved Instances are correct because they offer significant discounts for a committed three-year, steady-state, 24/7 workload. For the transcoding microservice, Spot Instances are correct because the workload is stateless and fault-tolerant, allowing the company to leverage spare EC2 capacity at the lowest cost.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Analyze the requirements for the first workload (analytics application).
The analytics application is a steady-state, predictable workload running 24/7 over a three-year period.
For long-term, predictable workloads, AWS Reserved Instances or Savings Plans provide significant cost savings (up to 72% discount) compared to On-Demand instances.
2
Analyze the requirements for the second workload (video transcoding microservice).
The video transcoding microservice is stateless, stores progress in Amazon S3, and can tolerate interruptions.
Spot Instances utilize spare EC2 capacity at discounts up to 90% off On-Demand rates, making them the most cost-effective option for fault-tolerant, interruptible workloads.

Key Concept

Selecting optimal Amazon EC2 pricing models based on workload predictability, duration, and fault tolerance.
Estimated Time:1m 30s
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