gp2 vs gp3 disks: see how to choose the right one

Among the most popular AWS services is Amazon EC2, precisely because it offers companies scalable computing capacity in the Amazon Web Services cloud. And the key to the operation of this service is the instances (virtual machines) that make it up.

“Instance types span various combinations of CPU, memory, storage, and networking capacity. They give you the flexibility to choose the right combination of resources for your applications. Each instance type includes one or more instance sizes, allowing you to scale your resources based on the requirements of your target workload", explained about it in the AWS documentation.

How the Amazon EC2 storage system works

All the operations that Amazon EC2 executes are thanks to Amazon Elastic Block Store (Amazon EBS), it is a scalable block storage service that adjusts to all kinds of operations and companies.

• It allows scaling those workloads that are more complex and demanding.
• There is 99% availability of the system, so errors will be minimal.
• The company can select the type of storage that fits its workload.

Amazon EBS volume types: gp2 vs gp3

gp2 and gp3 are two of the most used types of SSD volumes today. And here we will talk about the characteristics of each one so that you can see which one is best for your project or company.

What is gp2 volume?

This is the default EBS volume type for Amazon EC2 instances. “These volumes are backed by solid-state drives (SSDs) and are suitable for a wide variety of transactional workloads, including development/test environments, low-latency interactive applications, and boot volumes,” they specified in the documentation.

General data provided by AWS services

Volume size: 1 GB to 16 TB
Durability: 99.8% to 99.9% durability
Max IOPS**/volume: 16,000
Max throughput***/volume: 250MB/s
Max IOPS/Instance: 260,000
Max Throughput/Instance: 7500MB/s
Latency: single digit millisecond
Price: $0.10/GB-month
Dominant Performance Attribute: IOPS

What is gp3 volume?

“Amazon gp3 volumes are the next generation of general-purpose SSD-based EBS volumes that enable customers to deliver performance regardless of storage capacity, while offering prices per GB up to 20% lower than conventional volumes. existing gp2,” explained Amazon Web Services.

General data provided by AWS

Volume size: 1 GB to 16 TB
Durability: 99.8% to 99.9%
Max IOPS per volume: 16,000
Maximum throughput*** per volume: 1000 MB/s
Max IOPS per instance: 260,000
Max Throughput/Instance: 7500MB/s
Latency: single digit millisecond
Storage price: 0.08 USD/GB per month
Provisioned Throughput Pricing: 3,000 free IOPS and $0.005/month provisioned IOPS over 3,000 IOPS; 125 MB/s free and $0.04/MB/s provisioned per month, over 125 MiBps
Dominant Performance Attribute: USD/IOPS

With this data that we offer you from the Amazon EBS gp2 and gpr3 volumes, you can now assess which option is best for your workflow. At Rootstack, we have +10 years of experience supporting companies in their digital transformation. Contact Us!

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