Dedicated Host Vs Dedicated Instance – Know the Difference!

If you have worked with Amazon Website Service or AWS, you must have come across the terms like Dedicated Host and Dedicated Instance. AWS launched the idea of Dedicated Instances to let organizations launch the EC2 instances on their dedicated infrastructure.

The company using AWS service now had a choice between getting a Dedicated Instance over dedicated hosting.

Here, many questions arose about both terms, leading many companies and AWS users to confusion. Many people may get confused over Dedicated hosting and dedicated instance when they think of availing the AWS services for their web and business setup.

We came up with experts that know the fundamental difference and usage of both Dedicated hosting and the dedicated instance in AWS EC2. After understanding all these terms, we can provide you with this guide so that you can understand them too in the most accessible words possible.

This article will help you understand which one of the following dedicated hosting and dedicated instance you need for your business and how they can help you grow and work efficiently throughout the years.

What exactly is AWS EC2?

To understand the concept of dedicated instances and dedicated hosting, it is essential to know a few critical things about EC2 in AWS. Amazon EC2 stands for Amazon’s Elastic Compute Cloud, an instance that works as a virtual server for running applications over the AWS infrastructure.

The main idea was to provide many instance types for the client or the user to choose from that further optimize and fit the instance to the different users’ AWS services demands and requirements. These instances have different combinations of CPU, Storage, Memory, and even networking limit and capacity.

This concept helped many users to mix and match the feature and the resources to make a unique instance that fits perfectly to their requirements. Therefore, each instance has a unique purpose and size to work efficiently and upscale the resources to meet the targeted workload provided by the user.

Now let us talk about how these instances are created. Amazon uses its services called AMI or Amazon Machine Image, which you can say templates in simple language. Now, these templates help in the configuration of the environment that the user wants. This configuration process includes the operating system and much other software by Amazon.

Once the AMI is ready and provided by the AWS as instances, the user selects what sets perfectly up to the need of the business. AMI has already made so many instances that they are available through the AWS Marketplace or if required. User can have their personalized AMI as well.

Once the instance is used and released or freed by the user, all the resources are released for others to use. The issue was all related to compliance and performance resources therefore, AWS introduced the concept of Dedicated Hosting and Dedicated Instances.

What are Dedicated Hosts

Honestly, the AWS official document does not give us sufficient and real differences. But there are many technical aspects and differences between Dedicated Hosts and Dedicated Instances.

According to the AWS documentation, the Dedicated Host gives the user a host that lets them have complete control over the instances.

The host gives them visibility over the instance and how it is placed and deployed over the physical servers of AWS. You can deploy the required instances over the selected physical server anytime.

The Dedicated Instance and Dedicated host are deployed over the physical server. The Dedicated Host allows you to select and create instances and deploy them over servers, but the catch is that no other user can use these resources.

The Dedicated Host gives you visibility over the physical host that asks you to bring YOUR OWN License model, BYOL. The purpose of having the BYOL is to have your Server, SUSE, SQL, database Server, RHEL licenses over the CPU, and server dedicated to you.

You have the license of visibility, then the Dedicated Hosts give you the same compliance as the dedicated Instances. Another benefit of having a dedicated Host is increased and optimized performance, especially when networking.

Since the instances are over the same physical Host, the network latency can be minimized accordingly. The user with visibility to the physical hosts allows you to investigate the network and resource system. You have an AWS console and transparency to review the servers to reserve your service requirements.

What is a Dedicated Instance

The Dedicated instance is assigned or chosen by the user according to their requirements, including storage, CPU core, memory, and more. In the dedicated host, you are allowed to have a dedicated instance and control and visibility over the physical server.

But in a Dedicated instance, the user chooses the instance according to requirements and works over it till needed. Afterward, the resources are released over the physical server for others to use.

You can create dedicated instances over the physical server or use the ones already available and made through the AMI provided by AWS.

Difference Between Dedicated Host and Dedicated Instance

There is no visible or documented difference between the Dedicated Host and Dedicated Instance. But you can say that the Dedicated host has the same process as the dedicated instance. Still, it is more beneficial since you are in more control over the choices and the physical server due to visibility.

Pricing

Pricing packages for Dedicated Instance and Dedicated Host are also available over the AWS hourly if you are interested in knowing more about the price, head over to the Amazon EC2 Dedicated Hosts Pricing Page.

We can say that one major difference is the price. Honestly, the Dedicated Host may have a lot of benefits but also comes at a reasonable price than the Dedicated Instance.

Since you are taking a big deal of dedicated instances in the hosts, the saving percentage is very reasonable over the Dedicated Hosts. But launching the Dedicated Instance is better if you are more concerned about the network performance, especially for intranet or BOYL, instead of price.

Conclusion

The dedicated Host is perfect for enterprise companies and users that need more than one instance over the physical server with an opportunity for visibility of the server. The dedicated Instance is the perfect choice for those with just a few to one instance required.

We recommend using the Dedicated Host if you want more visibility over the physical server and host, especially with the BYOL. If you need your application to have minimal latency between the instances, then a Dedicated host is also perfect for that as well. Dedicated Instances are only perfect if you are more concerned about compliance than having a regulation system.