Cloud Computing
Instance Type
Definition
An instance type is a specific configuration of CPU, memory, storage, and networking capacity for a virtual server in the cloud. Cloud providers offer a wide variety of instance types optimized for different workloads.
Why It Matters
Choosing the right instance type is crucial for both performance and cost. An application that is memory-intensive needs an instance type with a high ratio of memory to CPU, while a compute-intensive application needs the opposite.
Contextual Example
AWS offers a huge family of EC2 instance types. "t" instances are for general-purpose, burstable workloads. "c" instances are compute-optimized. "r" instances are memory-optimized. "g" instances have GPUs.
Common Misunderstandings
- Instance types are grouped into "families" based on their intended use case.
- Choosing the right instance type is a key part of the "right-sizing" process.