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EC2 storage-optimized instances are designed to deliver high disk I/O performance, and plenty of storage. Our customers use them to host high-performance real-time databases, distributed file systems, data warehouses, key-value stores, and more. Over the years we have released multiple generations of storage-optimized instances including the HS1 (2012) , D2 (2015), I2 (2013) , I3 (2017), I3en (2019), and D3/D3en (2020).
As I look back on all of these launches, it is interesting to see how we continue to provide an ever-increasing set of options that make each successive generation an even better fit for the diverse (and also ever-increasing) needs of our customers. HS1 instances were available in just one size, D2 and I2 in four, I3 in six, and I3en in eight. These instances give our customers the freedom to choose the size that best meets their current needs while also giving them room to scale up or down if those needs happen to change.
Im4gn and Is4gen
Today I am happy to introduce the two newest families of storage-optimized instances, Im4gn and Is4gen, powered by Graviton2 processors. Both instances offer up to 30 TB of NVMe storage using AWS Nitro SSD devices that are custom-built by AWS. As part of our drive to innovate on behalf of our customers, we turned our attention to storage and designed devices that were optimized to support high-speed access to large amounts of data. The AWS Nitro SSDs reduce I/O latency by up to 60% and also reduce latency variability by up to 75% when compared to the third generation of storage-optimized instances. As a result you get faster and more predictable performance for your I/O-intensive EC2 workloads.
Im4gn instances are a great fit for applications that require large amounts of dense SSD storage and high compute performance, but are not especially memory intensive such as social games, session storage, chatbots, and search engines. Here are the specs:
| Instance Name | vCPUs | Memory | Local NVMe Storage (AWS Nitro SSD) |
Read Throughput (128 KB Blocks) |
EBS-Optimized Bandwidth | Network Bandwidth |
| im4gn.large | 2 | 8 GiB | 937 GB | 250 MB/s | Up to 9.5 Gbps | Up to 25 Gbps |
| im4gn.xlarge | 4 | 16 GiB | 1.875 TB | 500 MB/s | Up to 9.5 Gbps | Up to 25 Gbps |
| im4gn.2xlarge | 8 | 32 GiB | 3.75 TB | 1 GB/s | Up to 9.5 Gbps | Up to 25 Gbps |
| im4gn.4xlarge | 16 | 64 GiB | 7.5 TB | 2 GB/s | 9.5 Gbps | 25 Gbps |
| im4gn.8xlarge | 32 | 128 GiB | 15 TB (2 x 7.5 TB) |
4 GB/s | 19 Gbps | 50 Gbps |
| im4gn.16xlarge | 64 | 256 GiB | 30 TB (4 x 7.5 TB) |
8 GB/s | 38 Gbps | 100 Gbps |
Im4gn instances provide up to 40% better price performance and up to 44% lower cost per TB of storage compared to I3 instances. The new instances are available in the AWS US West (Oregon), US East (Ohio), US East (N. Virginia), and Europe (Ireland) Regions as On-Demand, Spot, Savings Plan, and Reserved instances.
Is4gen instances are a great fit for applications that do large amounts of random I/O to large amounts of SSD storage. This includes shared file systems, stream processing, social media monitoring, and streaming platforms, all of which can use the increased storage density to retain more data locally. Here are the specs:
| Instance Name | vCPUs | Memory | Local NVMe Storage (AWS Nitro SSD) |
Read Throughput (128 KB Blocks) |
EBS-Optimized Bandwidth | Network Bandwidth |
| is4gen.medium | 1 | 6 GiB | 937 GB | 250 MB/s | Up to 9.5 Gbps | Up to 25 Gbps |
| is4gen.large | 2 | 12 GiB | 1.875 TB | 500 MB/s | Up to 9.5 Gbps | Up to 25 Gbps |
| is4gen.xlarge | 4 | 24 GiB | 3.75 TB | 1 GB/s | Up to 9.5 Gbps | Up to 25 Gbps |
| is4gen.2xlarge | 8 | 48 GiB | 7.5 TB | 2 GB /s | Up to 9.5 Gbps | Up to 25 Gbps |
| is4gen.4xlarge | 16 | 96 GiB | 15 TB (2 x 7.5 TB) |
4 GB/s | 9.5 Gbps | 25 Gbps |
| is4gen.8xlarge | 32 | 192 GiB | 30 TB (4 x 7.5 TB) |
8 GB/s | 19 Gbps | 50 Gbps |
Is4gen instances provide 15% lower cost per TB of storage and up to 48% better compute performance compared to I3en instances. The new instances are available in the AWS US West (Oregon), US East (Ohio), US East (N. Virginia), and Europe (Ireland) Regions as On-Demand, Spot, Savings Plan, and Reserved instances.
Available Now
As I never get tired of saying, these new instances are available now and you can start using them today. You can use Amazon Linux 2, Ubuntu 18.04.05 (and newer), Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.0, and SUSE Enterprise Server 15 (and newer) AMIs, along with the container-optimized ECS and EKS AMIs. Learn more about the Im4gn and Is4gen instances.
— Jeff;
PS – As of this launch twelve EC2 instance types are now powered by Graviton2 processors! To learn more, visit the Graviton2 page.
