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Difficulty: MediumEstimating GCP Costs with the Pricing Calculator

A cloud engineer is estimating monthly infrastructure expenses using the Google Cloud Pricing Calculator for a data ingestion pipeline. The workload consists of a fleet of stateless, fault-tolerant virtual machines that run short batch jobs whenever new data files arrive, and the jobs can automatically resume if an instance is terminated. Which configuration choice in the Pricing Calculator provides the most accurate and cost-effective estimate for these batch processing instances?

  1. Model the instances as Spot Virtual Machines (VMs) to reflect discounted hourly pricing for fault-tolerant workloads.Answer
  2. B
    Apply a 3-Year Committed Use Discount (CUD) to the batch instances to achieve the maximum baseline discount for sporadic processing tasks.
  3. C
    Select GKE Autopilot mode under Compute Engine VM settings to automatically eliminate underlying compute instance pricing.
  4. D
    Configure standard Compute Engine instances with Coldline Persistent Disks to lower the hourly VM instance compute rate.

Answer

Model the virtual machines as Spot VMs in the pricing calculator, as they offer substantial discounts for workloads that are stateless and fault-tolerant.
Spot VMs are excess Compute Engine capacity available at steep discounts compared to standard pricing. Because the scenario specifies that the batch workload is stateless, fault-tolerant, and capable of resuming after termination, choosing Spot VMs in the Google Cloud Pricing Calculator yields the most accurate and cost-effective cost estimate.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Analyze the workload characteristics
The workload is stateless, fault-tolerant, runs in short batch spikes, and can tolerate instance terminations.
Understanding workload tolerance dictates which GCP cost-reduction models (Spot VMs vs CUDs) are appropriate.
2
Evaluate pricing calculator options against workload requirements
Spot VMs (or Preemptible VMs) provide deep discounts specifically designed for fault-tolerant jobs that do not require continuous uptime guarantees.
Committed Use Discounts require continuous baseline commitments, whereas Spot VMs cater to batch/intermittent workloads.
3
Select the optimal configuration in the pricing calculator
Selecting Spot VM pricing accurately models the reduced compute cost for the batch processing fleet.
This yields the most realistic and cost-optimized monthly estimate for the specified architecture.

Key Concept

Cost estimation for fault-tolerant compute workloads using Spot VMs in the Google Cloud Pricing Calculator
Estimated Time:1m 30s
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Estimating GCP Costs with the Pricing Calculator

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