(tl;dw) This talk discusses how to get the most cost effective servers from EC2 taking into account that EC2 instances are heterogeneous (that is to say they do

(tl;dw) This talk discusses how to get the most cost effective servers from EC2 taking into account that EC2 instances are heterogeneous (that is to say they don't run the same hardware so it is almost certain that they will perform differently). Each instance has three-four subgroups of different hardware types depending on when the configuration was installed. (2006/07/10 etc). Also, each zone has different configurations, especially as new zones are being installed and newer hardware is being added to start with. Variations of performance can approach 60% between the same instance types (processor,memory,disk,network). Cost savings can be achieved by seeking for better performing instances, check it it performs well, if it does, keep it, if it does not, drop the machine and request a new instance. Instances using E5645 are 1.6 times as effecient as the E5507, however, if you are requesting m1.large servers, you only have a 5% probability of getting a E5645 server if you rented in 2011, whereas now you have a 42% probability. You can also wiew the slides here: https://www.usenix.org/sites/default/files/conference/protected-files/ou_hotcloud12_slides.pdf https://www.usenix.org/sites/default/files/conference/protec...