d3en.6xlarge

Analysis

The d3en.6xlarge is a storage optimized instance in the d3en series with 24 vCPUs and 96 GiB of memory on Intel Xeon Platinum 8259 (Cascade Lake) (up to 3.1 GHz), which makes it balanced at 4 GiB of memory per vCPU.

Running it in N. Virginia instead of Tokyo saves $1,037 a month per instance: $3.15/hour against $4.57/hour, a 45% spread. It is not offered in Ohio, Canada Central, São Paulo, London and Mumbai, so plan around that if you need a presence there.

Per vCPU it is one of the dearer storage optimized types: 88% of the 90 current types in the family cost less than its $0.1314 per vCPU-hour. The premium mostly pays for a newer processor or a specialised configuration. On demand it is $3.15/hour in US East (N. Virginia), or $2,302 for a 730-hour month.

Looking beyond its own line, 2 of 3 current types with 24 vCPUs and similar memory are cheaper. The cheapest of those is the m5zn.6xlarge on Intel Xeon Platinum 8252 at $1.98/hour.

It has local instance storage (12 x 14000 GB HDD), which is fast but lost when the instance stops. Network: 40 Gigabit.

Reserving it for a year with no upfront payment cuts the Linux rate to $1.99/hour, which beats on demand once it runs more than 63% of the time; three years brings it to $1.36/hour, 57% below on demand. Windows Server roughly adds 35% to the bill at $4.26/hour, because the licence is charged per vCPU.