Upgrading to the latest generation of Amazon EC2 i-series instances can significantly reduce infrastructure costs while improving performance and efficiency.
Why Upgrading Matters
Amazon’s latest generation EC2 i-family instances offer substantial improvements over previous generations:
- Performance Boost: Over 4x higher I/O performance
- Disk Throughput: More than 2x improved throughput
- Storage Efficiency: 18% more SSD per CPU
- Cost Optimization: Dramatically lower pricing
Concrete Cost Comparison Example
| Instance Type | Memory | vCPUs | Monthly Cost | Cost Difference |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| i2.xlarge | 30.5 GiB | 4 | $622 | – |
| i3.xlarge | 30.5 GiB | 4 | $227 | 63% savings |
Detailed Implementation Guide
Infrastructure-as-Code Example (Terraform)
Before:
resource "aws_instance" "legacy_instance" {
instance_type = "i2.xlarge"
# Other configuration parameters
}After:
resource "aws_instance" "optimized_instance" {
instance_type = "i3.xlarge"
# Other configuration parameters
}Manual Migration Steps
- Assessment
- Inventory current i-family instances
- Review workload compatibility
- Validate performance requirements
- Planning
- Select appropriate next-generation instance type
- Test compatibility in staging environment
- Prepare migration strategy
- Migration
- Create new instances
- Migrate data and configurations
- Validate performance
- Terminate legacy instances
Best Practices
- Gradual Migration: Implement changes incrementally
- Performance Testing: Benchmark before and after upgrades
- Cost Tracking: Monitor total cost of ownership
- Regular Review: Assess instance generations annually
Recommended Tools
- AWS Cost Explorer
- AWS Compute Optimizer
- Infracost: Automatically detect and recommend instance upgrades during infrastructure planning
Real-World Scenarios
Scenario 1: Database Hosting
A media company running PostgreSQL on i2.xlarge instances reduced monthly infrastructure costs by $395 per instance by migrating to i3.xlarge.
Scenario 2: High-Performance Computing
Scientific research team upgraded from i2 to i3 instances, achieving 40% performance improvement with 60% cost reduction.
Considerations and Caveats
- Compatibility: Ensure application supports new instance type
- Data Migration: Plan for potential data transfer
- Licensing: Verify software licensing terms
- Complex Workloads: Some specialized workloads might require custom evaluation