Instances›AWS EC2›i2›i2.8xlarge
Compute
vCPUs32
Memory244 GiB
Mem / vCPU7.63 GiB
ProcessorXeon E5-2670 v2
Clock speed2.5 GHz
Architecturex86_64
Storage
Type8 × 800 GB SSD
BandwidthN/A
ThroughputN/A
IOPS0
Networking
Performance10 Gigabit
Max ENIs8
IPv6Yes
GPUNone
Family sizes
i2.large2 vCPU · 15 GiB
i2.xlarge4 vCPU · 30.5 GiB
i2.2xlarge8 vCPU · 61 GiB
i2.4xlarge16 vCPU · 122 GiB
i2.8xlarge32 vCPU · 244 GiB
i2.8xlarge

i2.8xlarge is AWS's storage-optimized EC2 size at 32 vCPU and 244 GiB. In the name, "i" is I/O, meaning local storage, "2" is the generation and "8xlarge" is the size within the i2 family. It runs on Intel Xeon E5-2670 v2 (Ivy Bridge) at 2.5 GHz, and AWS introduced it in December 2013. AWS has since shipped i3, i4i, i7i and i8g; i3.8xlarge is the direct replacement at this size. The closest Spot shape is mh.vs1.2xlarge at 16 vCPU, so this instance maps to 2 of them — 32 vCPU and 256 GiB across the fleet, $6.82/hr on AWS in US East (N. Virginia), from $0.042/hr on Rackspace Spot. Spot delivers compute as managed Kubernetes, so a node pool of that size is the native shape of the answer rather than a workaround — provided the workload scales horizontally.

Match qualityScale-out match

i2.8xlarge gives you 32 vCPU and 244 GiB in a single machine. The largest comparable Spot node, mh.vs1.2xlarge, is 16 vCPU and 128 GiB, so the equivalent here is 2 nodes rather than one.

Spot runs as managed Kubernetes, so a 2-node pool is the normal way to run things rather than a workaround. If your workload already sits behind a load balancer, a queue or a scheduler, it spreads across them without changes. If it needs all 32 cores and 244 GiB in one process, it does not.

No local diski2.8xlarge comes with 8 × 800 GB SSD attached to the machine. Spot nodes use network storage only, so that disk doesn't come with it. If you were using it as fast scratch space, you'd move to a persistent volume or object storage, which are slower to read.
Pricing by region
1 hr
RegionAWS on-demandAWS Spot1-yr Reserved3-yr ReservedRackspace SpotYou save
US East, N. Virginia$6.820$1.082$3.392$0.042
$6.778 savings
US Central, Chicagono AWS region$0.042
US Central, Dallasno AWS region$0.262
Hong Kong$0.042
Sydney, Australia$8.140$1.157$4.880$0.042
$8.098 savings
London, UK$0.262
US West, San Jose$7.502$0.750$4.120$0.004
$7.498 savings
US Central, Dallas 2no AWS region$0.484
When to use it
Good for
  • ●Data warehousing and log processing
  • ●Distributed file systems and search indexes
  • ●Transactional databases with heavy random I/O
  • ●Workloads that fit inside 244 GiB of RAM
  • ●Jobs that want 8 × 800 GB of local SSD scratch space
  • ●Network-heavy services — AWS rates this size at 10 Gigabit
  • ●Anything that shards cleanly across 2 nodes, which is how it maps onto Rackspace Spot
Avoid if
  • ●Starting a new deployment. i3.8xlarge is the newer generation at this size.
  • ●The working set needs more than 244 GiB of RAM
  • ●The work is single-threaded. Most of these 32 vCPU would sit idle.
  • ●GPU or FPGA acceleration is needed
  • ●Workloads that never touch local disk. The instance-store premium is wasted.
  • ●More than 7.63 GiB of RAM per vCPU is needed — that ratio is fixed for the whole family
Stop overpaying AWS. This compute costs $4,979/mo on AWS vs $31/mo on Rackspace Spot.
  • Spot sells spare capacity at market prices. It is the cheapest compute on the internet.
  • Prices are set by supply and demand. You pay what the market decides.
  • Compute is delivered as fully managed Kubernetes. All infrastructure is taken care of.
  • Egress costs $0.01/GB after the free allowance. AWS charges $0.09/GB.
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