AWS EC2 Compute Guide 2025: Instance Types and Best Practices
What’s New in 2025
Key Updates and Changes
- 7th Generation Intel Instances: M7i, C7i, and R7i families with Sapphire Rapids processors
- 15% Better Performance: Custom Intel processors exclusive to AWS
- Graviton3 Dominance: Up to 40% better price-performance than Intel counterparts
- Enhanced Networking: Up to 200 Gbps network performance on select instances
- Intel Advanced Features: AMX for ML workloads, QAT, IAA, and DSA accelerators
Instance Family Updates
- Deprecated: M3, C3 instances - migrate to M7i, C7i
- New Compute: C7i with Intel AMX for ML inference
- Memory Optimized: R7i supports up to 24TB memory
- Storage Optimized: I4i with up to 30TB NVMe SSD
- ML/AI Focus: P5 instances with H100 GPUs, Trn1 with Trainium chips
Major AWS Announcements
- EC2 Capacity Blocks: Reserve GPU capacity for ML training
- Spot Instance Integration: Better integration with EKS and ECS
- Windows Server 2025: Full support with optimized AMIs
Understanding what AWS/EC2 provides for provisioning on-demand computing is essential for all DevOps. In 2025, choosing the right instance type can reduce costs by 40% or more.