Posted On: Jun 11, 2015
You can now launch M4 instances, the latest generation of Amazon EC2 General Purpose instances. M4 instances provide a balance of compute, memory, and network resources. They are well suited for a variety of workloads, such as web servers, databases, caching fleets, and enterprise applications. M4 instances are available in five sizes with up to 40 vCPUs and 160 GiB of system memory.
M4 instances are based on custom Intel Xeon E5-2676 v3 Haswell processors that are optimized specifically for EC2. These processors run at a base frequency of 2.4 GHz and can deliver clock speeds as high as 3.0 GHz with Intel Turbo Boost. Intel Haswell processors include AVX2, which can provide significant performance improvement for workloads that take advantage of Intel AVX or Intel SSE.
M4 instances are EBS-optimized by default at no additional cost. EBS Optimization provides 450 Mbps to 4,000 Mbps of dedicated throughput to EBS depending on the instance type in addition to the network throughput provided to the instance. M4 also features Enhanced Networking. M4 instances with Enhanced Networking deliver up to four times the packet rate of instances without Enhanced Networking, while ensuring consistent latency, even when under high network I/O. Within Placement Groups, Enhanced Networking reduces average latencies between instances by 50 percent or more.
You can purchase M4 instances as On-Demand Instances, Reserved Instances, or Spot Instances. M4 instances are available in the US East (N. Virginia), US West (N. California), US West (Oregon), EU (Ireland), Asia Pacific (Singapore), EU (Frankfurt), Asia Pacific (Sydney), and Asia Pacific (Tokyo) AWS regions, with more regions coming soon.
To learn more about M4 instances, visit the Amazon EC2 Instances page.
M3 and C4 Lower Prices: Amazon EC2 M3 and C4 instance prices have been reduced by 5% for On-Demand Instances and 1 year Reserved Instances in the US East (N. Virginia), US West (Oregon), EU (Ireland), EU (Frankfurt), Asia Pacific (Sydney), and Asia Pacific (Tokyo) AWS regions. On-Demand Instance price reductions are effective June 1, 2015 and Reserved Instance price reductions will apply to purchases after June 11, 2015.
To learn more about the price drops, visit the Amazon EC2 pricing page.