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Difficulty: MediumEstimating GCP Costs with the Pricing Calculator

An organization plans to host a production relational database on Google Compute Engine virtual machines that will run continuously 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for several years. The database is stateful, non-fault-tolerant, and requires predictable performance with persistent block storage. When modeling the monthly infrastructure expenses for this workload using the Google Cloud Pricing Calculator, which configuration option should be selected to achieve the maximum guaranteed discount on compute resources?

  1. Specify Committed Use Discounts (CUDs) for a 1-year or 3-year term for the Compute Engine instance resources.Answer
  2. B
    Rely solely on default Sustained Use Discounts (SUDs) to obtain the highest possible multi-year cost reduction.
  3. C
    Select Spot VM provisioning model to minimize the hourly instance compute rate.
  4. D
    Configure the attached persistent disks using Cloud Storage Archive tier pricing in the calculator.

Answer

Specify Committed Use Discounts (CUDs) for a 1-year or 3-year term for the Compute Engine instance resources.
Committed Use Discounts (CUDs) are designed for workloads with predictable compute needs. By committing to 1-year or 3-year resource usage in the Google Cloud Pricing Calculator, users unlock the maximum possible discount tier for 24/7 Compute Engine workloads.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Identify the workload characteristics from the scenario
The database workload runs continuously 24/7 (steady-state) and is stateful/non-fault-tolerant.
Understanding workload continuity and fault tolerance determines which pricing model and discount mechanisms are applicable.
2
Evaluate discount options in the Google Cloud Pricing Calculator
Committed Use Discounts (CUDs) offer maximum savings (up to 70% for 3-year terms) for predictable steady-state compute workloads compared to automatic Sustained Use Discounts (SUDs).
CUDs require a commitment to a specified amount of vCPUs and memory for 1 or 3 years, yielding higher savings than automatic sustained usage.
3
Verify suitability of alternative provisioning and storage options
Spot VMs cannot be used due to preemption risks on stateful databases, and block storage persistent disks cannot use Cloud Storage object tiers.
Ensures the cost estimation reflects realistic and supported architectural choices.

Key Concept

Selecting appropriate discount models (CUD vs. SUD) and instance types in the Google Cloud Pricing Calculator based on workload predictability and availability constraints.
Estimated Time:1m 30s
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Estimating GCP Costs with the Pricing Calculator

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