x2iezn.4xlarge

Analysis

The x2iezn.4xlarge is a memory optimized instance in the x2iezn series with 16 vCPUs and 512 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.4xlarge on AWS Graviton2 costs $1.34/hour, 60% less ($1,460 a month), though switching means rebuilding software for arm64. The other variants are the x2iedn.4xlarge at $3.33.

Running it in N. Virginia instead of Tokyo saves $1,095 a month per instance: $3.34/hour against $4.84/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 $3.34/hour in US East (N. Virginia), or $2,435 for a 730-hour month.

Reserving it for a year with no upfront payment cuts the Linux rate to $2.05/hour, which beats on demand once it runs more than 62% of the time; three years brings it to $1.07/hour, 68% below on demand. Windows Server roughly adds 22% to the bill at $4.07/hour, because the licence is charged per vCPU.