AWS EC2 instance store - better performance options for storage compared to EBS

In my previous article, I introduced about EBS (Elastic Block Store). We know that the EBS store is a network driver, so there might be a bit of latency because of the network communication. More than that, we have to pay for the EBS separately, so using EBS can cost us more money in exchange for the persistent storage.

EC2 instance store overview

An instance store provides temporary block-level storage for our EC2 instance. This storage is provided by disks that are physically attached to the host computer. Therefore, it provides better I/O performance compared to EBS. However, the data stored in the EC2 instance store is temporary, this means that the data is lost when the instance is stopped, terminated, or failed.

Why do we need an EC2 instance store?

• High performance: it provides extremely fast, low-latency storage, which is ideal for application that require high throughput.
• Good for buffer, cache, scratch data, and temporary content.
• Cost-effective: It is cheaper than the EBS store because we do not have to pay for it separately, it is a part of the EC2 instance cost.

When not to use it?

We should not use the Instance store when we want to store the critical data after stopping or terminating the instance.

What happens to our data when the EC2 instance events occur

How to make instance store volume available for use