Question

Difficulty: MediumCost-Optimized Compute Selection and Purchasing Strategies

A healthcare technology company hosts its core patient data processing application on AWS. The application has two main workloads:

1. A containerized backend service running on Amazon EC2 instances that processes transaction data continuously 24/7 with a predictable baseline utilization.
2. A relational database running on Amazon RDS for PostgreSQL that is also active 24/7 to support the application's transaction logging.

To meet regulatory compliance, the application must run continuously without any interruptions. The company wants to optimize its compute and database costs for these workloads.

Which two purchasing strategies should a solutions architect recommend to achieve the most cost-effective architecture? (Select TWO.)

  1. Purchase a Compute Savings Plan to cover the baseline usage of the Amazon EC2 instances.Answer
  2. Purchase Reserved Instances for the Amazon RDS DB instances.Answer
  3. C
    Purchase a Compute Savings Plan to cover both the Amazon EC2 instances and the Amazon RDS DB instances.
  4. D
    Migrate the 24/7 Amazon EC2 worker application to AWS Lambda to leverage pay-per-request pricing.
  5. E
    Purchase an EC2 Instance Savings Plan to cover the Amazon RDS DB instances.

Answer

The solutions architect should recommend purchasing a Compute Savings Plan to cover the Amazon EC2 instances, and purchasing Reserved Instances for the Amazon RDS DB instances.
To optimize costs for a 24/7 predictable EC2 compute baseline, a Compute Savings Plan offers significant discounts and flexibility. To optimize costs for the 24/7 RDS database, purchasing Reserved Instances is the appropriate strategy since Compute Savings Plans do not cover Amazon RDS.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Analyze the compute workload requirement
The EC2 backend service runs 24/7 with a predictable baseline, making it ideal for a Savings Plan.
Savings Plans provide significant discounts compared to On-Demand rates in exchange for a commitment to a consistent amount of usage.
2
Analyze the database workload requirement
The RDS database runs 24/7, making it ideal for Reserved Instances.
Reserved Instances provide significant discounts for RDS databases that run continuously.
3
Evaluate the scope of Compute Savings Plans
Compute Savings Plans apply to EC2, Fargate, and Lambda, but do not apply to RDS databases.
RDS databases must be covered under RDS Reserved Instances, not Compute Savings Plans.

Key Concept

Compute Savings Plans apply to EC2, Fargate, and Lambda, while RDS instances require RDS Reserved Instances for cost optimization.
Estimated Time:1m 30s
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