Leveraging EC2 Reserved Instances to Save on Scanning Overhead

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

Select a Reserved Instance

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’re 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.

Select a Reserved Instance - Cloud Defender Customers

If you're an Alert Logic Cloud Defender™ customer, you can also enjoy AWS savings. 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’re 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 canceled.

That’s it. You just cut costs… no coupons required.

Additional Resources

For more information on Amazon EC2 Reserved Instances, visit Getting Started with Reserved Instances.