Instances›AWS EC2›is4gen›is4gen.8xlarge
Compute
vCPUs32
Memory192 GiB
Mem / vCPU6.00 GiB
ProcessorGraviton2 Processor
Clock speed2.5 GHz
Architecturearm64
Storage
Type4 × 7,500 GB NVMe SSD
Bandwidth20,000 Mbps
Throughput2500 MB/s
IOPS80,000
Networking
Performance50 Gigabit
Max ENIs8
IPv6Yes
GPUNone
Family sizes
is4gen.medium1 vCPU · 6 GiB
is4gen.large2 vCPU · 12 GiB
is4gen.xlarge4 vCPU · 24 GiB
is4gen.2xlarge8 vCPU · 48 GiB
is4gen.4xlarge16 vCPU · 96 GiB
is4gen.8xlarge32 vCPU · 192 GiB
is4gen.8xlarge

is4gen.8xlarge is AWS's storage-optimized EC2 size at 32 vCPU and 192 GiB. In the name, "4" is the generation, "gen" marks AWS Graviton (ARM) processors, extended capacity and enhanced networking and "8xlarge" is the size within the is4gen family. It runs on AWS Graviton2 Processor at 2.5 GHz, and AWS introduced it in November 2021. is4gen is the current generation of the is family, so there is no newer AWS size to migrate to. 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, $4.61/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

is4gen.8xlarge gives you 32 vCPU and 192 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 192 GiB in one process, it does not.

x86_64 onlyis4gen.8xlarge is Graviton (arm64) and Rackspace Spot has no arm64 nodes, so you'd be moving to x86. You'll need x86 builds of your images, and per-core speed differs between the chips — worth testing before you decide how many nodes to run.
No local diskis4gen.8xlarge comes with 4 × 7,500 GB NVMe 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$4.610$0.649$3.144$2.005$0.042
$4.568 savings
US Central, Chicagono AWS region$0.042
US Central, Dallasno AWS region$0.262
Hong Kong$0.042
Sydney, Australia$5.528$0.553$3.770$2.401$0.042
$5.486 savings
London, UK$5.365$0.564$3.663$2.333$0.262
$5.103 savings
US West, San Jose$0.004
US Central, Dallas 2no AWS region$0.484
When to use it
Good for
  • ●NoSQL stores such as Cassandra, ScyllaDB and MongoDB
  • ●Data warehousing and log processing
  • ●Distributed file systems and search indexes
  • ●Workloads that fit inside 192 GiB of RAM
  • ●Jobs that want 4 × 7,500 GB of local NVMe scratch space
  • ●Network-heavy services — AWS rates this size at 50 Gigabit
  • ●Anything that shards cleanly across 2 nodes, which is how it maps onto Rackspace Spot
Avoid if
  • ●The working set needs more than 192 GiB of RAM
  • ●You cannot rebuild x86-only binaries or vendor images for aarch64
  • ●More than 6.00 GiB of RAM per vCPU is needed — that ratio is fixed for the whole family
  • ●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.
$3,366/mo on AWS on-demand against $31/mo on Rackspace Spot for the 2-node equivalent — market-priced, not list-priced.
  • 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.
Build your Cloudspace
Frequently asked questions