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Difficulty: MediumCost-Effective Network Routing and Data Transfer Optimization

A company has a distributed data processing application running on Amazon EC2 instances. The instances are deployed across two Availability Zones (us−east−1aus-east-1a and us−east−1bus-east-1b) in a single VPC. The application nodes constantly exchange intermediate data, totaling approximately 80 TB80\text{ TB} of data transfer monthly. The nodes currently communicate using their auto-assigned public IP addresses. Which two recommendations should a solutions architect make to reduce the monthly network data transfer charges? (Select TWO.)

  1. Configure the application nodes to communicate using their private IP addresses instead of public IP addressesAnswer
  2. Launch the EC2 instances in a single Availability Zone using a cluster placement groupAnswer
  3. C
    Deploy an AWS NAT Gateway in each Availability Zone and route the inter-node traffic through them
  4. D
    Associate Elastic IP addresses with each instance and configure the nodes to communicate using these addresses
  5. E
    Establish a VPC Peering connection within the VPC to route the inter-node traffic

Answer

The correct recommendations are to configure the application nodes to use private IP addresses for communication and to deploy the instances in a single Availability Zone using a cluster placement group.
Configuring nodes to communicate using private IP addresses is highly cost-effective because data transfer using private IPs within the same Availability Zone is free of charge. Launching the instances in a single Availability Zone using a cluster placement group eliminates cross-Availability Zone data transfer charges entirely while maintaining the low-latency network performance required for distributed data processing.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Identify the current network path and IP usage for node communication.
The nodes currently use public IP addresses, which routes traffic through public AWS endpoints and incurs data transfer out and in charges.
To begin optimization, we must determine the cheapest IP addressing scheme available within a VPC.
2
Evaluate the impact of switching to private IP addresses.
Switching to private IP addresses makes traffic within the same Availability Zone free ($0.00 per GB\$0.00\text{ per GB}) and reduces cross-Availability Zone traffic cost to standard internal rates.
Private IP communication within a VPC avoids public IP data transfer pricing.
3
Evaluate the impact of consolidation into a single Availability Zone.
Placing all nodes in the same Availability Zone eliminates cross-Availability Zone data transfer charges ($0.01 per GB\$0.01\text{ per GB} in each direction). Using a cluster placement group ensures the low-latency network performance is maintained.
Distributed applications with high inter-node communication are most cost-effective when consolidated within a single Availability Zone.

Key Concept

AWS data transfer charges vary based on the IP address type (public vs. private) and network boundaries (same Availability Zone vs. cross-Availability Zone). Using private IPs and single-AZ cluster placement groups optimizes both cost and performance for high-throughput distributed workloads.
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Topics

Cost-Effective Network Routing and Data Transfer Optimization