AWS Certified Advanced Networking – Specialty (ANS-C01)Network ImplementationMedium

A company is deploying a new containerized application that requires very high network throughput and low latency between its services. These services are deployed as EC2 instances within a single Availability Zone (AZ) in a private subnet. The application also needs to ensure that the instances are physically located close to each other to minimize inter-instance communication latency. Which placement strategy should the network engineer use for these EC2 instances?

  1. ADedicated Hosts
  2. BCluster Placement Group
  3. CSpread Placement Group
  4. DPartition Placement Group
Show answer & explanation

Correct answer: B. Cluster Placement Group

A Cluster Placement Group packs instances close together inside an Availability Zone, achieving high network throughput and low-latency communication. This is ideal for applications that require intensive inter-instance networking performance.

Why the other options are wrong

  • A. Dedicated Hosts provide physical server capacity dedicated to your use, but do not inherently guarantee low-latency placement of instances relative to each other within the host or across hosts.
  • C. Spread Placement Groups place instances on distinct underlying hardware to reduce correlated failures, which is opposite to the low-latency requirement.
  • D. Partition Placement Groups divide instances into logical partitions to avoid correlated failures across partitions, not for low-latency inter-instance communication.

Cluster Placement Group

An EC2 placement strategy that groups instances logically within a single Availability Zone to achieve high network throughput and low-latency communication.

  • Instances packed closely together
  • Highest inter-instance network performance
  • Must be within a single Availability Zone
  • Suitable for HPC, big data, and tightly coupled applications

Memory trick: Cluster for Close, Spread for Separate, Partition for Parts.

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