Leverage EC2 Reserved Instances to Save Big on Scanning Overhead

By: Lindsey Stirneman

Would you like to reduce your next Cloud Insight Amazon Web Services (AWS) bill by up to 40 percent? It’s possible using Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) Reserved Instances for your scanning appliances.

Alert Logic® Cloud Insight is an automated, cloud-native security platform for AWS, while Amazon EC2 is a web service that provides resizable compute capacity in the cloud. EC2 Instances are an AWS billing construct and remain available even without the presence of scanning appliances. Alert Logic® scanning appliances default to Amazon EC2 On-Demand (hourly) Instances. However, Reserved Instances give you the ability to reserve EC2 capacity for use when necessary and receive a significant discount.

Selecting a Reserved Instance requires some minor investigation up front. Just follow these steps:

1. In your AWS Management Console, navigate to EC2, Autoscaling, and then Autoscaling Groups.
2. See “Alert Logic Security Appliance” row.
3. Check which Availability Zone that your Cloud Insight appliance is using.

If this appliance information isn’t visible, then you may need to adjust your IAM user account permissions.

When you are ready to purchase an Amazon EC2 Reserved Instance, make sure that it matches your appliance’s Availability Zone and instance type.

Pro tip: Cloud Insight appliances always use the “m3.medium” instance type. Remember, after you purchase a specific Reserved Instance, it cannot be cancelled. Consider choosing an annual term to take advantage of possible price cuts from year to year.

Amazon Web Services Pricing for “m3.medium” EC2 Reserved Instances as of 5/4/2016

Good news for Cloud Defender customers too

If you are a Cloud Defender customer, you can also enjoy AWS savings. Alert Logic® Cloud Defender® is a cloud-based suite of security and compliance solutions for hybrid IT infrastructure that is delivered as-a-service. The Threat Manager product is part of this suite.

To determine the correct Reserved Instance, take the following steps:

1. In your AWS Management Console, navigate to EC2, and then Instances.
2. See “TMAppliance” row.
3. Check which Availability Zone that your Threat Manager appliance is using.
4. Check which instance type that your Threat Manager appliance is using.

If you don’t see this appliance information, then your IAM user account permissions may need to be adjusted.

When you are ready to purchase an Amazon EC2 Reserved Instance, make sure that it matches your appliance’s Availability Zone and instance type. Again, remember that, after you purchase a specific Reserved Instance, it cannot be cancelled.

That is it. You just cut costs…no coupons required.

Originally published at www.alertlogic.com. For more information on Amazon EC2 Reserved Instances, visit Getting Started with Reserved Instances.

About the Author

LLindsey Stirneman is a technical communication and content marketing veteran in both the hosting and SaaS industries. At cPanel, she produced and hosted the hosting platform company’s first podcast. She has written for a variety of technology publications and blogs on topics ranging from usability testing and content strategy to product feature requests. In her current role as Sr. Global Community Manager at Alert Logic, Stirneman leads a group that fosters knowledge sharing in the areas of cloud security and compliance.