Not All Clouds Are Created Equal

Why the performance you demand can also deliver the most value.

Key Takeaways

  • Strategic hardware upgrades can boost performance – and save money

  • Prioritize value over cost by comparing performance-per-dollar

  • Build a seamless IT environment to move data with ease

author-image

Oleh

Creating the right IT environment to support a competitive business requires careful planning and preparation. In this context, it can be tempting to look only at short-term considerations, such as upfront costs. However, thinking through the longer-term total cost of ownership (TCO) of your Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud instances ensures you are considering the broadest possible range of factors - including performance and overall value.

Strategic hardware upgrades boost performance – and save money

Cutting-edge technologies offer new, higher levels of performance. For example, AWS instances based on the latest generation of Intel® Xeon® Scalable processors offer the highest levels of performance compared to instances based on previous generation technology, with 2x faster reliable performance for analytics and database processing.2

At a first glance, choosing a public cloud platform based on the latest technology may seem costly, but research has shown that performance improvements and size reduction mean the opposite. In fact, organizations can reduce per-instance infrastructure costs by moving to smaller, newer instance sizes.3 For example, an enterprise using AWS EC2 T2.Large instances can upgrade to AWS EC2 T3.Medium instances to achieve a saving of USD 248.14 per instance without losing any throughput or performance. This will result in an annual saving of USD 32,258.3

In addition to this efficiency saving, reducing the number of cores in the data center often brings down software licensing costs, which could represent another large saving. It’s estimated that enterprises who upgrade to the newest AWS EC2 instances could save as much as USD 72,000 annually.4

Prioritize value over cost by comparing performance-per-dollar

The value of an AWS EC2 instance is more than just its upfront cost. When you’re assessing different options, look into benchmarking and performance-per-dollar for the workloads that matter most to your enterprise and business outcomes. Demanding workloads like high performance computing (HPC) and artificial intelligence (AI) are transforming many business use cases, from unlocking new levels of medical research to advanced fraud detection in the financial industry.

Consider the performance-per-dollar of different AWS instances specifically for running the workloads that matter to your enterprise. You may find that while less expensive instances look like a better deal, in many cases Intel® technology provides higher value where it counts - anywhere from 1.25x greater performance for web/Java workloads all the way up to 4.1x greater performance per dollar with high performance computing (HPC).5

Build a seamless IT environment to move data with ease

Your AWS cloud services are just one part of your IT infrastructure. To ensure you can flexibly move data and workloads around your digital estate with minimal latency, you’ll need to ensure architecture compatibility. Because Intel® architecture-based cloud instances are completely compatible, you don’t need to shut down the workload and restart it on the new architecture. This means faster, smoother, and more efficient transfer of workloads and data with no downtime.

When it comes to picking the AWS cloud solution that is best suited to your needs, there are many different factors to consider. Speed and performance are important regardless of your workload – and by measuring TCO over upfront cost, you can ensure these factors are fully integrated into your company’s cloud strategy.

Download Intel’s business brief to find out more about building a TCO-focused business strategy.