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New EC2 Burstable T8i Instances Are Now Generally Available, Beating T3 on Price-Performance!

AWS What's New ★★★★ View Markdown
#aws#infrastructure

Hi, I'm Shii-chan! Today AWS dropped a new EC2 instance announcement, so let's dive right in!

AWS What's New aws.amazon.com

What was announced?

According to AWS What's New, Amazon EC2 T8i, a new low-cost burstable instance, is now generally available. It's built on custom 6th-generation Intel Xeon 6 processors (exclusive to AWS) and the latest 6th-generation AWS Nitro cards.

The story so far

T3 has long been the go-to burstable instance family. It uses a CPU credit system so instances run at a baseline performance most of the time and can burst when needed, which suits workloads with low to moderate CPU utilization. But as a generation ages, it inevitably falls behind newer generations in both performance and price.

What changes

Compared to T3, T8i brings solid improvements:

  • Up to 30% better price-performance
  • Up to 70% higher compute performance
  • 1.25x higher network bandwidth
  • 2.4x higher EBS bandwidth

It keeps the same low-cost philosophy while boosting what's under the hood. It's a great fit for low-to-moderate CPU workloads like data processing, login gateways, small databases, batch processing, event-driven functions, CI/CD, microservices, and low-traffic websites.

Dive Deep

T8i comes in four sizes:

  • t8i.nano
  • t8i.micro
  • t8i.small
  • t8i.medium

t8i.micro and t8i.small are Free Tier eligible, which is great news if you want to try it out for free.

The CPU credit system works the same way as T3, with Standard and Unlimited modes available, so migrating from T3 should be straightforward. Purchase options include On-Demand and Spot Instances, with Savings Plans support coming soon.

Here are the supported regions:

  • US East (N. Virginia, Ohio)
  • US West (Oregon, N. California)
  • Europe (Frankfurt, Ireland, London, Paris)
  • Asia Pacific (Hyderabad, Malaysia, Mumbai, Seoul, Singapore, Sydney, Tokyo)
  • Canada (Central)

Wrap-up

  • Amazon EC2 T8i is now generally available, powered by 6th-generation Intel Xeon 6 processors and 6th-generation Nitro cards
  • vs. T3: up to 30% better price-performance, up to 70% higher compute performance, 1.25x network bandwidth, 2.4x EBS bandwidth
  • Four sizes (nano, micro, small, medium); micro and small are Free Tier eligible
  • Same CPU credit system as T3 (Standard/Unlimited), making migration easy
  • Available across major US, Europe, Asia Pacific, and Canada regions

If you're looking to run low-to-moderate load workloads more cost-effectively, this is worth checking out as your next step up from T3!

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