cache.t4g.medium (Amazon ElastiCache Instance Overview)

Use Cases for cache.t4g.medium

Primary Use Cases

• Development and Testing Environments: Developers often use t4g-medium instances for ElastiCache testing and development environments, where workloads may see periods of low activity with occasional needs for performance bursts.

• Small to Medium-Scale Web Applications: For web applications or services that do not continuously demand high performance, the t4g.medium’s burstable performance will ensure you pay as you go based on CPU utilization.

• Caching for Scaled Services: If your service requires occasional bursts of ElastiCache performance, such as e-commerce or media sites that experience traffic spikes, t4g instances are a perfect fit.

When to Use cache.t4g.medium

• Bursty and Variable Workloads: Applications that see inconsistent or spiky usage patterns, such as cache for websites or microservices that experience peak traffic at certain times.

• Cost-Sensitive Applications: If you aim to optimize cost while having the flexibility to burst workloads when needed, t4g.medium provides a good balance.

• Testing Graviton2 Compatibility: Developers looking to test and assess the performance and compatibility of Arm-based Graviton2 infrastructure for their applications without a massive resource commitment.

When Not to Use cache.t4g.medium

• Continual Performance Needs: If your application requires constant, high-end performance without bursts or interruptions, t4g.medium may not be the best. In such cases, m-series or c-series instances offer more sustained performance.

• High Network or I/O Requirements: Applications that are network-intensive or require high IOPS, such as online analytical processing (OLAP), high-frequency trading, etc., will be better suited to instances offering dedicated EFA (Elastic Fabric Adapter) bandwidth or SSD-backed storage, like the r6gd or i3 series.

• High Memory Demands: If your workload is memory-bound, consider memory-optimized instances such as the r6g series. These instances provide significantly more memory per vCPU and can handle large datasets with more efficiency.

Understanding the t4g Series

Overview of the Series

The t4g series is part of the burstable performance family of Amazon ElastiCache instances and is powered by Arm-based AWS Graviton2 processors. These instances deliver a balance of compute, memory, and network resources, making them a versatile solution for a wide range of applications. A hallmark of the t4g family is the ability to manage variable workloads with a combination of consistent baseline performance and the option to burst CPU performance when needed. The t4g series offers a balance between performance and cost, making it ideal for cost-sensitive environments.

Key Improvements Over Previous Generations

The t4g series introduces significant advancements over earlier t3 and t2 generations:

• AWS Graviton2 Processor: The t4g series is powered by up to 40% faster and more efficient Graviton2 processors, providing up to 40% better price-performance compared to the t3 series.
• Enhanced Baseline Performance: Thanks to improved architecture and CPUs, a cache.t4g.medium instance can sustain a strong baseline level of computing power, adding more value to workloads that require steady performance with occasional spikes.
• Cost Efficiency: Instances of the t4g series are known for offering more cost per performance than their t3 equivalents.

Additionally, these instances drive efficiencies for applications that deal with both baseline-heavy and burst processing, while offering a lower cost than compute-optimized or memory-optimized instances for the same workloads.

Comparative Analysis

• Primary Comparison: The t4g series (Graviton2-based) offers significantly more performance than its predecessor t3 series, which relies on Intel processors. When considering performance per dollar, the t4g series delivers a more attractive pricing model, thanks to the Graviton2-based architecture. Unlike previous generations, the t4g medium instance can sustain higher baseline performance while providing configurable burstable CPU vCPUs based on credits accumulated.

• Brief Comparison with Relevant Series:

  • General Purpose (m-series): The m-series instances, such as m5 or m6g (Graviton2-based), are ideal for a wide variety of general-purpose applications where a consistent workload is expected. If your workload requires more steady performance without the burstable nature of the t-series, and you need higher memory or network bandwidth, m-series might be a better choice.
  • Compute-Optimized (c-series): The c-series is designed for compute-intensive tasks that require high CPU performance continually, such as scientific calculations or machine learning workloads. For workloads that need sustained, high-end CPU performance without interruptions, consider upgrading to c-series instances.
  • Burstable Performance (t-series): The t4g series (including cache.t4g.medium) is specifically aimed at bursting CPU capacity as needed, ideal for applications where demand fluctuates over time. This makes it a great fit for small to medium databases, dev/test environments, and workloads that experience periodic bursts of CPU activity.
  • Unique Features in Network Optimized Series: If your workload is network-bound, such as those with frequent and intense networking, a different series like the r6gd (which offers NVMe SSD and high network capacity) might be favored over the t4g.medium instance.

Migration and Compatibility

Migrating to cache.t4g.medium from prior generations such as t3 or t2 is straightforward, as they share a similar instance configuration except for the new underlying Graviton2 processor architecture. However, you must note that Graviton2-based instances (such as the t4g series) rely on Arm architecture, so if your applications have compiled binaries, they must be recompiled for the Arm architecture. The good news is that most modern libraries and applications are already compatible with the Arm ecosystem. In addition, taking advantage of low-level Graviton2 features could improve the performance of an existing system.

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