AWS Certified Security – SpecialtyDomain 3: Infrastructure SecurityEasy
A client is building a highly confidential application on AWS that processes Personally Identifiable Information (PII). Due to stringent compliance requirements, the client must ensure that the underlying physical servers hosting their Amazon EC2 instances are dedicated solely to their account and are not shared with any other AWS customers. This is crucial for avoiding the 'noisy neighbor' problem and meeting specific licensing requirements. Which EC2 purchasing option should the client choose to satisfy these requirements?
- AOn-Demand Instances
- BDedicated Hosts
- CReserved Instances
- DSpot Instances
Show answer & explanationAnswer & explanation
Correct answer: B. Dedicated Hosts
Dedicated Hosts provide physical EC2 servers dedicated for your use, ensuring that instances run on hardware solely dedicated to a single customer account. This meets the requirement for strict isolation and can address specific compliance and licensing needs.
Why the other options are wrong
- A. On-Demand Instances run on shared hardware by default and do not guarantee dedicated physical servers.
- C. Reserved Instances are a billing discount applied to On-Demand or Dedicated Instances, not a specific hardware isolation model on their own.
- D. Spot Instances are for fault-tolerant workloads and run on shared, surplus EC2 capacity, offering no dedicated hardware guarantee.
AWS EC2 Dedicated Hosts
Amazon EC2 Dedicated Hosts are physical servers with EC2 instance capacity fully dedicated to your use. This allows you to use your existing server-bound software licenses and addresses stringent compliance requirements.
- Provides complete physical isolation from other AWS accounts.
- Suitable for compliance needs and specific licensing models.
- You control instance placement on a specific host.
- Can be purchased On-Demand or as Reserved Instances.
Memory trick: Dedicated Hosts are like reserving a private island for your application's servers, no one else can land there.