AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate (SAA-C03)Design High-Performing ArchitecturesEasy
A data analytics startup needs to process petabytes of historical data stored in Amazon S3 for batch analysis. The processing jobs are cost-sensitive and can tolerate interruptions, as they can be restarted. The company wants to minimize compute costs while ensuring sufficient processing power when needed. Which EC2 instance purchasing option, combined with Amazon EMR, would be most cost-effective for this scenario?
- AOn-Demand Instances
- BReserved Instances
- CDedicated Hosts
- DSpot Instances
Show answer & explanationAnswer & explanation
Correct answer: D. Spot Instances
EC2 Spot Instances allow you to bid on unused EC2 capacity, offering significant cost savings (up to 90% off On-Demand prices). Since the batch analysis jobs can tolerate interruptions and be restarted, Spot Instances are ideal for cost-sensitive, fault-tolerant workloads like Amazon EMR processing of historical data.
Why the other options are wrong
- A. On-Demand Instances are more expensive and do not offer the cost savings desired for interruptible, cost-sensitive batch jobs.
- B. Reserved Instances are for applications with predictable, steady-state usage over a 1- or 3-year term, not for flexible, interruptible batch processing.
- C. Dedicated Hosts provide dedicated physical servers for specific licensing requirements or strict compliance, which is not relevant for cost-effective batch data processing.
EC2 Spot Instances
An Amazon EC2 purchasing option that lets you request unused EC2 instances at a significant discount, ideal for fault-tolerant or flexible applications.
- Up to 90% cost savings compared to On-Demand prices.
- Instances can be interrupted by AWS with a two-minute warning.
- Suitable for batch processing, data analysis, and stateless workloads.
- Integrated with Auto Scaling and EMR for managing interruptions.
Memory trick: Spot Instances: Grab the bargain, even if it's a quick stop.