x2iezn.2xlarge

Analysis

The x2iezn.2xlarge is a memory optimized instance in the x2iezn series with 8 vCPUs and 256 GiB of memory on Intel Xeon Platinum 8252 (up to 4.5 GHz), which makes it very memory-heavy at 32 GiB of memory per vCPU.

Within the same generation and size, the x2gd.2xlarge on AWS Graviton2 costs $0.6680/hour, 60% less ($730 a month), though switching means rebuilding software for arm64. The other variants are the x2iedn.2xlarge at $1.67.

Running it in N. Virginia instead of Tokyo saves $548 a month per instance: $1.67/hour against $2.42/hour, a 45% spread. It is not offered in Ohio, Canada Central, São Paulo, London, Frankfurt, Mumbai, Singapore and Sydney, so plan around that if you need a presence there.

Per vCPU it is one of the dearer memory optimized types: 97% of the 385 current types in the family cost less than its $0.2085 per vCPU-hour. The premium mostly pays for the extra memory per vCPU. On demand it is $1.67/hour in US East (N. Virginia), or $1,218 for a 730-hour month.

Reserving it for a year with no upfront payment cuts the Linux rate to $1.03/hour, which beats on demand once it runs more than 62% of the time; three years brings it to $0.5357/hour, 68% below on demand. Windows Server roughly adds 22% to the bill at $2.04/hour, because the licence is charged per vCPU.