Lesson 7 / 26

Instance Types at a Glance

Choosing the right shape of virtual server for the workload.

Families

General purpose (t/m series) balance CPU/RAM for typical apps. Compute optimized (c series) favor CPU for heavy processing. Memory optimized (r series) favor RAM for big in-memory workloads.

Reading the name

In t3.micro: t is the family, 3 the generation, micro the size. Bigger sizes (small, medium, large, xlarge...) roughly double CPU/RAM each step.

Pick by workload, not by guess

Benchmark or estimate CPU/RAM needs before choosing. Oversizing wastes money; undersizing causes throttling — you can also resize an instance later.