C7i and C7i-flex instances on Amazon EC2
Compute-optimized instances of Intel Xeon Scalable Processors, fourth generation.With a 2:1 RAM to vCPU ratio, the C7i-flex and EC2 C7i instances on Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) are the next generation of compute-optimized instances. Specialised Intel Xeon Scalable 4th Generation processors (code named Sapphire Rapids) power them.
AWS is the only provider of these special processor-powered EC2 instances, which outperform comparable Intel processors utilised by other cloud providers by up to 15%. In the cloud, these are the highest performing equivalent Intel CPUs.
Using C7i-flex instances is the most straightforward way to achieve price performance benefits for the majority of compute-intensive tasks. They offer price performance that is up to 19% better than C6i instances. Because C7i-flex instances are available in the most popular sizes large to 8xlarge with up to 32 vCPUs and 64 GB of RAM, they make a great starting choice for applications that don't require all of the computational power.
C7i-flex instances can easily run the most common compute-intensive workloads, including web and application servers, databases, caches, Apache Kafka, and Elasticsearch.
When dealing with applications that demand larger instance sizes (up to 192 vCPUs and 384 GiB memory) or consistently high CPU utilisation, EC2 C7i instances provide a better balance between cost and functionality. EC2 C7i instances are excellent at a variety of tasks, including batch processing, distributed analytics, high performance computing (HPC), ad serving, highly scalable multiplayer gaming, and video encoding. C7i instances provide up to 15% better price performance than C6i instances.
Lowering expenses by using new Amazon EC2 Flex instances
The whole computing power of an EC2 instance is not utilised by many users. These customers are consequently paying for services that they do not need. Amazon EC2 C7i-flex instances are the most straightforward way to achieve improved price performance for the majority of compute-intensive applications. Most of the time, Amazon EC2 Flex instances are able to maximise compute resource utilisation by scaling up to full computing performance. Maximising cost and performance is the aim of flex instances.Benefits
Lower costs
Using C7i-flex instances is the most straightforward way to optimise costs for the majority of compute-intensive applications. They offer price performance that is up to 19% better than C6i instances. EC2 C7i instances outperform C6i instances by 15% in terms of pricing performance. C7i's additional larger instance sizes enable workloads that are more demanding and larger in size to be executed as well as consolidation.Flexibility and judgement
C7i-flex and EC2 C7i instances now complement the widest and most diverse selection of EC2 instances on AWS. The top five sizes that C7i-flex offers are large to 8xlarge. C7i offers eleven sizes with varying vCPU, memory, networking, and storage capacity (two bare-metal sizes, c7i.metal-24xl and c7i.metal-48xl).Optimum resource usage efficiency
The C7i-flex and EC2 C7i instances are built on top of the AWS Nitro System, which combines specialised hardware with a lightweight hypervisor. Nitro gives your instances almost all of the processing and memory resources of the host hardware, which enhances overall performance and security. In terms of workloads, Nitro System-based EC2 instances can provide throughput performance that is more than 15% faster than that of other cloud providers with the same CPU.Features Powered by Fourth Generation Intel Xeon Scalable Processors
The C7i-flex and EC2 C7i instances are powered by custom 4th Generation Intel Xeon Scalable processors with an all-core turbo frequency of 3.2 GHz (max core turbo frequency of 3.8 GHz). These unique CPUs are only available on AWS and offer the greatest performance among comparable Intel processors. In all scenarios, support for Intel Total Memory Encryption (TME) always-on memory encryption is provided.Enhanced performance interfaces
C7i-flex and EC2 C7i instances employ DDR5 memory, which provides higher bandwidth than C6i instances. C7i-flex instances offer up to 12.5 Gbps of networking bandwidth and up to 10 Gbps of bandwidth for Amazon Elastic Block Store (Amazon EBS).EC2 C7i instances handle up to 50 Gbps of networking bandwidth and 40 Gbps of bandwidth to Amazon EBS. Moreover, EC2 C7i supports up to 128 EBS volume attachments per instance, compared to C6i's 28 EBS volume attachment limit. EC2 C7i instances also support Elastic Fabric Adapter (EFA) in metal-48xl and 48xlarge sizes.
New accelerators
The fourth generation of Intel Xeon Scalable CPUs has four new integrated accelerators. Advance Matrix Extensions (AMX), available on both C7i-flex and EC2 C7i instances, accelerate matrix multiplication processes for applications like as CPU-based machine learning.Data Streaming Accelerator (DSA), In-Memory Analytics Accelerator (IAA), and Quick Assist Technology (QAT) are only available on EC2 C7i bare metal sizes. These technologies help with efficient data offloading and acceleration, which improves performance for databases, encryption and compression, and queue management workloads.
Built with the Nitro Framework in Mind
AWS may quickly and flexibly develop EC2 instance types with an ever-expanding range of networking, storage, compute, and memory capabilities by assembling the Nitro System in a variety of ways. Nitro Cards increase the system's overall performance by offloading and speeding I/O for functions.Most applications don't run at 100% CPU utilization all the time. Take, for instance, a web application. It rarely makes full use of a server's computing power, typically rotating between periods of high and low demand.
Minimum CPU performance provided by Amazon EC2 C7i instances
Picture courtesy of AWS
Running such workloads on Amazon EC2 M7i-flex instances, which were originally introduced in August, is one easy and reasonably priced way to do so. These less priced variants of the Amazon EC2 M7i instances offer the same next-generation specs for general purpose computing in the most popular sizes, with the added benefit of giving you better price/performance if you don't always need full compute capability. Because of this, they're a great starting point if you want to reduce operating costs without compromising performance standards.Due to the positive feedback received from customers regarding this flexibility, Amazon EC2 C7i-flex instances are now available. These instances provide similar benefits in terms of pricing and performance, along with reduced costs for computationally intensive applications. These are less costly variants of the Amazon EC2 C7i instances, with a 95% capacity to scale up to the maximum compute performance and a minimal CPU performance.
Examples of C7i-flex
With five of the most common sizes offered, from large to 8xlarge, the price-performance ratio of the C7i-flex is 19% greater than that of the Amazon EC2 C6i instances.| Instance name | vCPU | Memory (GiB) | Instance storage (GB) | Network bandwidth (Gbps) | EBS bandwidth (Gbps) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| c7i-flex.large | 2 | 4 | EBS-only | up to 12.5 | up to 10 |
| c7i-flex.xlarge | 4 | 8 | EBS-only | up to 12.5 | up to 10 |
| c7i-flex.2xlarge | 8 | 16 | EBS-only | up to 12.5 | up to 10 |
| c7i-flex.4xlarge | 16 | 32 | EBS-only | up to 12.5 | up to 10 |
| c7i-flex.8xlarge | 32 | 64 | EBS-only | up to 12.5 | up to 10 |
Which is preferable, C7i or C7i-flex?
Amazon Web Services (AWS) is the only provider of 4th Generation Intel Xeon Scalable processors, which power the compute-optimized C7i-flex and C7i instances. They provide up to 15% more performance than equivalent x86-based Intel CPUs used by other cloud providers.Applications such as web and application servers, databases, caches, Apache Kafka, and Elasticsearch are ideal for executing on them. They both have a 2:1 memory to vCPU ratio and use DDR5 memory.
So why would you pick one over the other to use? These are the three things you should consider when selecting the finest solution for you.
Usage trends
EC2 flex instances are a great option if you don't need to employ all of the processing power.Five percent higher price performance and five percent lower pricing are possible with an efficient use of compute resources. Because C7i-flex instances are generally a great fit for most applications, they should be the first choice for compute-intensive workloads.
Instead, if your programme requires continuous high CPU utilization, you should use EC2 C7i instances. Perhaps more appropriate for them are workloads like distributed analytics, ad serving, batch processing, high performance computing (HPC), highly scalable multiplayer gaming, and video encoding.
Sizes of the occurrences
C7i-flex instances are used by most workloads and are available in the most common sizes, up to a maximum of 8xlarge.If you need higher specs, you might consider the massive C7i instances, which are available in 12xlarge, 16xlarge, 24xlarge, 48xlarge, and two bare metal alternatives with metal-24xl and metal-48xl sizes.
Network bandwidth
You may need to employ one of the larger C7i instances, depending on your requirements, as greater capacities also provide higher bandwidths for the network and Amazon Elastic Block Store (Amazon EBS). C7i-flex instances should be sufficient for most workloads, with a network bandwidth of up to 12.5 Gbps and an Amazon Elastic Block Store (Amazon EBS) capacity of up to 10 Gbps.Knowledgeable Regions: Check out AWS Services by Region to see if C7i-flex instances are available in the regions you've selected.
Purchase choices for C7i-Flex and EC2 C7i instances include On-Demand, Savings Plan, Reserved Instance, and Spot form. Furthermore, dedicated instances and hosts are provided for C7i.
News Source: EC2 C7i
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