Relevant News - Amazon Elastic Block Store

Link: https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2026/02/ec2-i8g-metal-48xl-generally-available/

AWS is announcing the general availability of Amazon EC2 Storage Optimized I8g.metal-48xl instances. I8g instances are powered by AWS Graviton4 processors that deliver up to 60% better compute performance compared to previous generation I4g instances. I8g instances use the latest third generation AWS Nitro SSDs, local NVMe storage that deliver up to 65% better real-time storage performance per TB while offering up to 50% lower storage I/O latency and up to 60% lower storage I/O latency variability. These instances are built on the AWS Nitro System, which offloads CPU virtualization, storage, and networking functions to dedicated hardware and software enhancing the performance and security for your workloads.

Amazon EC2 I8g instances are designed for I/O intensive workloads that require rapid data access and real-time latency from storage. These instances excel at handling transactional and real-time databases, including MySQL, PostgreSQL, and NoSQL solutions like ClickHouse, Apache Druid, and MongoDB. They're also optimized for real-time analytics platforms such as Apache Spark. I8g instances are available in 11 different sizes with up to 48xlarge (including 2 metal sizes), 1,536 GiB of memory, and 45 TB local instance storage. They deliver up to 100 Gbps of network performance bandwidth, and 60 Gbps of dedicated bandwidth for Amazon Elastic Block Store (EBS).

To learn more, visit EC2 I8g instances. To begin your Graviton journey, visit the Level up your compute with AWS Graviton page.

Published: 2026-02-26 16:00:00+00:00

Link: https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2026/02/amazon-ec2-m8gn-m8gb-new-metal-sizes/

Today, AWS announces the general availability of metal-24xl and metal-48xl sizes for Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) M8gn and M8gb instances. These instances are powered by AWS Graviton4 processors to deliver up to 30% better compute performance than AWS Graviton3 processors. M8gn instances feature the latest 6th generation AWS Nitro Cards, and offer up to 600 Gbps network bandwidth, the highest network bandwidth among network optimized EC2 instances. M8gb offers up to 300 Gbps of EBS bandwidth to provide higher EBS performance compared to same-sized equivalent Graviton4-based instances.

M8gn and M8gb instances offer instance sizes up to 48xlarge and metal-48xl, with up to 768 GiB of memory. M8gn instances offer up to 600 Gbps of networking bandwidth, up to 60 Gbps of bandwidth to Amazon Elastic Block Store (EBS), and are ideal for network-intensive workloads such as high-performance file systems, distributed web scale in-memory caches, caching fleets, real-time big data analytics, Telco applications such as 5G User Plane Function (UPF). M8gb instances offer up to 300 Gbps of EBS bandwidth, up to 400 Gbps of networking bandwidth, and are ideal for workloads requiring high block storage performance such as high-performance databases and NoSQL databases.

M8gn and M8gb instances support Elastic Fabric Adapter (EFA) networking on 16xlarge, 24xlarge, 48xlarge, metal-24xl, and metal-48xl sizes. EFA networking enables lower latency and improved cluster performance for workloads deployed on tightly coupled clusters.

The new metal-24xl and metal-48xl sizes are available in the AWS US East (N. Virginia) region. 

To begin your Graviton journey, visit the Level up your compute with AWS Graviton page. To get started, see AWS Management Console, AWS Command Line Interface (AWS CLI), and AWS SDKs.

Published: 2026-02-25 16:00:00+00:00

Link: https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2026/02/amazon-ec-i-ie-instances-available-aws-africa/

AWS is announcing Amazon EC2 I7ie instances are now available in AWS Africa (Cape Town) region. Designed for large storage I/O intensive workloads, I7ie instances are powered by 5th Gen Intel Xeon Processors with an all-core turbo frequency of 3.2 GHz, offering up to 40% better compute performance and 20% better price performance over existing I3en instances. I7ie instances offer up to 120TB local NVMe storage density for storage optimized instances and offer up to twice as many vCPUs and memory compared to prior generation instances. Powered by 3rd generation AWS Nitro SSDs, I7ie instances deliver up to 65% better real-time storage performance, up to 50% lower storage I/O latency, and 65% lower storage I/O latency variability compared to I3en instances.

I7ie are high density storage optimized instances, ideal for workloads requiring fast local storage with high random read/write performance at very low latency consistency to access large data sets. These instances are available in 9 different virtual sizes and deliver up to 100Gbps of network bandwidth and 60Gbps of bandwidth for Amazon Elastic Block Store (EBS).

To learn more, visit the I7ie instances page.

Published: 2026-02-24 16:00:00+00:00

Link: https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/whats-new/2026/02/aws-compute-optimizer-applies-tags-ebs-snapshots/

AWS Compute Optimizer makes it easier to identify snapshots that are created when snapshotting and deleting unattached Amazon Elastic Block Store (EBS) volumes by automatically applying an AWS-generated tag during creation. This enhancement improves visibility and tracking of EBS snapshots created through Compute Optimizer Automation.

When Compute Optimizer creates a snapshot before deleting an unattached EBS volume—whether initiated through manual actions or automation rules—the snapshot now receives the tag aws:compute-optimizer:automation-event-id with a tag value that links the snapshot to the unique identifier of the automation event that created it. This allows you to easily identify, track, and manage snapshots created through the automated optimization process, helping you maintain better governance over your backup resources and understand the source of snapshots in your environment.

This is available in all AWS Regions where AWS Compute Optimizer Automation is available. To get started with automated optimization, go to the AWS Compute Optimizer console or visit the user guide documentation.

Published: 2026-02-24 19:58:00+00:00