Graviton

aws/compute aws/sustainability aws/hardware

💡 Definition

AWS Graviton processors are custom-built by AWS using 64-bit Arm Neoverse cores. They are designed to deliver the best price-performance for your cloud workloads running in EC2.

🔑 Key Concepts

Arm-based: Uses the ARM architecture (different from standard Intel/AMD x86).
Cost-Effective: Typically offers up to 40% better price-performance compared to comparable x86-based instances.
Energy Efficient: More power-efficient, contributing to the Sustainability pillar of the Well-Architected Framework.
Instance Types: Identified by a "g" in the name (e.g., m6g.large, c6g.xlarge).

⚙️ How it Works

You select a Graviton-based instance type when launching an EC2 instance or creating an RDS database. Your operating system and application must be compatible with the ARM architecture (most Linux distributions and open-source software are).

🎯 Use Cases

Web Servers: High-performance web hosting.
Containerized Microservices: Running Docker containers efficiently.
Data Stores: Running Redis, Memcached, or open-source databases.
Sustainability: Reducing the carbon footprint of your compute workload.

💰 Pricing Model

Graviton instances are generally cheaper per hour than their Intel/AMD counterparts.

📝 Exam Tips (CLF-C02)

Best price-performance ratio.
ARM-based architecture.
Key for the Sustainability pillar (energy efficiency).

See Also: * Instance Types * EC2 * AWS Well-Architected Framework (Sustainability)