Professional Cloud ArchitectManage and provision solution infrastructureMedium
A data analytics company needs to process large datasets (petabytes) for daily batch jobs. These jobs are computationally intensive, can tolerate interruptions, and require significant compute resources for only a few hours each day. The company wants to minimize costs. Which Compute Engine instance type and provisioning model should they use?
- AN1-highcpu instances with Preemptible VMs
- BE2-medium instances with Standard VMs
- CN2-standard instances with Standard VMs
- DC2-standard instances with Spot VMs
Show answer & explanationAnswer & explanation
Correct answer: D. C2-standard instances with Spot VMs
For computationally intensive batch jobs that can tolerate interruptions and require cost minimization, C2-standard instances offer high CPU performance. Spot VMs (formerly Preemptible VMs) provide significant cost savings for fault-tolerant workloads by leveraging unused capacity, making them ideal for this scenario.
Why the other options are wrong
- A. N1-highcpu instances are an older generation. While Preemptible VMs (now Spot VMs) are cost-effective, C2 instances offer superior performance for compute-intensive tasks. The question implies needing the *best* current option for compute-intensive and cost-minimized.
- B. E2-medium instances are general-purpose and cost-optimized for smaller workloads, not computationally intensive tasks. Standard VMs are also more expensive.
- C. N2-standard instances are general-purpose, and Standard VMs are significantly more expensive than Spot VMs, not aligning with the cost minimization for interruptible jobs.
Spot VMs (formerly Preemptible VMs) with C2 instances
Spot VMs are highly cost-effective Compute Engine instances suitable for fault-tolerant workloads that can handle interruptions. C2 instances are optimized for high CPU performance, making them ideal for computationally intensive tasks.
- Spot VMs offer significant cost savings (up to 91% off on-demand prices)
- Instances can be preempted with a 30-second notice
- C2 instances are optimized for compute-intensive workloads
- Ideal for batch jobs, scientific computing, and stateless applications
Memory trick: Spot the C2 for cheap, speedy batch processing.