Introducing Amazon EC2 D3 and D3en, the next generation of dense HDD storage instances

Posted on: Dec 1, 2020

Starting today, storage optimized Amazon EC2 D3 and D3en instances are available. These new instances are powered by 2nd generation Intel Xeon Scalable Processors (Cascade Lake) with a sustained all core frequency up to 3.1 GHz, and offer the highest density local HDD storage in the cloud.  

D3 instances provide up to 2.5x higher networking speed, and 45% higher disk throughput compared to D2 instances. An extended storage and high-speed networking variant, D3en instances, provide up to 7.5x higher networking speed, 100% higher disk throughput, 7x more storage capacity, and 80% lower cost-per-TB of storage compared to D2 instances.  

These instances are an ideal fit for workloads including distributed / clustered file systems, big data and analytics, and high capacity data lakes. With D3 and D3en instances, you can easily migrate from previous-generation D2 instances or on-premises infrastructure to a platform optimized for dense HDD storage workloads.  

Amazon EC2 D3 and D3en instances are built on the AWS Nitro System, a collection of AWS-designed hardware and software innovations that enable the delivery of private networking, and efficient, flexible, and secure cloud services with isolated multi-tenancy. 

D3 instances are available in 4 sizes ranging from 4 to 32 vCPUs, 32 to 256 GiB of memory, and 6 to 48 TB of local, HDD storage. D3en instances are available in 6 sizes ranging from 4 to 48 vCPUs, 16 to 192 GiB of memory, and 28 to 336 TB of local, HDD storage. D3 instances include up to 25 Gbps of network bandwidth and up to 4.6 GiBps of disk throughput, while D3en instances include up to 75 Gbps of network bandwidth and up to 6.2 GiBps of disk throughput. Both D3 and D3en are optimized for access to the Amazon Elastic Block Store (EBS).  

The D3 and D3en instances are now available in AWS US East (N. Virginia), US West (Oregon), and Europe (Ireland) regions. Additionally, D3 instances are available the AWS in US East (Ohio) region. Customers can purchase D3/D3en instances as part of Savings Plans, On-Demand, as Reserved, or as Spot Instances.  

To get started with D3 or D3en instances, visit the AWS Management Console, AWS Command Line Interface (CLI), or AWS SDKs. To learn more, visit the EC2 D3 instances page.