Amazon Redshift Adds New Dense Storage (DS2) Instances and Reserved Node Payment Options

You can now launch Amazon Redshift clusters on second-generation Dense Storage (DS2) instances. DS2 has twice the memory and compute power of its Dense Storage predecessor, DS1 (formerly DW1), and the same storage capacity. DS2 also supports Enhanced Networking and provides 50% more disk throughput than DS1. On average, DS2 provides 50% better performance than DS1, but is priced the same as DS1. To move from DS1 to DS2, simply restore a DS2 cluster from a snapshot of a DS1 cluster of the same size.

You also now have three Reserved Instance (a.k.a. Reserved Node) payment options: No Upfront, Partial Upfront and All Upfront. The No Upfront payment option does not require an upfront payment and provides a 20% discount compared to On-Demand. This option is only offered with a one-year term. The Partial Upfront payment is the same as the previous Heavy Utilization reserved instance. You pay for a portion of the reserved instances upfront, and then pay for the remainder over the course of the one or three-year term. The discount over On-Demand remains at up to 41% for a one year term and up to 73% for a three year term. The All Upfront payment option allows you to pay for the entire Reserved Instances term (one or three-year) with one upfront payment and benefit from the largest discount of up to 42% for a one-year term and up to 76% for a three year term, compared to On-Demand. To purchase these offerings simply visit the Reserved Nodes tab in our Console.

Details on the Amazon Redshift DS2 and Reserved Instance pricing are available on the Amazon Redshift pricing page.