Question

A tech company is running two production web servers hosted on reserved ec2 instances with ebs-backed root volumes. these instances have a consistent cpu load of 90%. traffic is being distributed to these instances by an elastic load balancer. in addition, they also have multi-az rds mysql databases for their production, test, and development environments. what recommendation would you make to reduce cost in this aws environment without affecting availability and performance of mission-critical systems?

a. Consider using On-demand instances instead of Reserved EC2 instances
b. Consider not using a Multi-AZ RDS deployment for the development and test database
c. Consider using Spot instances instead of reserved EC2 instances
d. Consider removing the Elastic Load Balancer

Answer 1

To reduce costs without affecting availability and performance, consider not using Multi-AZ RDS deployments for development and test databases, as these environments may not require the high availability of production environments.

Step-by-step explanation:

You're looking to reduce costs in an AWS environment without impacting availability and performance. Considering the scenario, the best recommendation would be:

• Consider not using a Multi-AZ RDS deployment for the development and test databases.

Multi-AZ deployments are primarily for production workloads to ensure high availability and fault tolerance. For development and test environments, where availability is not as critical, a Single-AZ deployment might be sufficient. This can significantly reduce costs.

Reserved Instances for EC2 are already a cost-effective choice for consistent workloads compared to On-Demand instances. Spot Instances may offer savings but can be interrupted, which risks performance. Removing the Elastic Load Balancer (ELB) would affect availability and performance, thus it's not advisable. The ELB is essential for distributing traffic and ensuring that no single instance is overloaded.