Drastically reduce licensing costs with AMD EPYC™
Anyone who runs Microsoft SQL Server on Amazon RDS knows that the instance class has a significant impact on total running costs. Since SQL Server licensing is based on vCPUs, the license often accounts for over 90% of the total annual bill for Enterprise databases.
The new cost-saving lever: AMD EPYC™ for more performance per core and fewer licensed vCPUs.
Why AMD EPYC™ for SQL Server on RDS
With the new AMD-based RDS instances M8a (General-Purpose) and R8a (Memory-Optimized) powered by 5th-generation AMD EPYC™ “Turin” CPUs, the cost-effectiveness of SQL Server on AWS is fundamentally changing.
Up to 36% lower transaction costs:
Higher throughput per core:
Greater license efficiency:
Flexible Optimization with RDS Optimize CPU:
Seamless drop-in replacement:
The Free 1-Workload Check
Give us one week and an SQL database. We’ll analyze and simulate your specific performance and cost-saving potential.
Sponsored Program: Thanks to support from AMD, we’ll cover the cost of the analysis—equivalent to the initial assessment—for selected customers.
Maximum SQL Server Performance
At SPILL IT, we talk with IT experts about exciting technologies, real-world challenges, and the topics shaping the IT world—in a direct, easy-to-understand way, without all the fluff.
This time, we’re focusing on: Microsoft SQL Server on Amazon RDS powered by AMD EPYC™.
- How can you get the most out of it?
- Where is there potential for cost savings?
- What makes AMD EPYC™ an attractive option for SQL Server workloads on AWS?
🎙️ Our guest: Jeremy Girven, AWS Technical Enablement Manager @ AMD
Limited-time offer: Request a 1-Workload Check now
Benchmark Summary
The benchmarks show that with AMD EPYC™, you can get more SQL Server performance out of each core while significantly reducing the cost per transaction.
| Statement | Comparison | Results |
|---|---|---|
|
SQL Server OLTP Throughput |
R8a vs. R8i |
Up to 63% higher (1.63× for XL; 1.35× for 4XL) |
|
Cost per transaction, including SQL Server license |
R8a vs. R8i |
Up to 36% lower |
|
SQL Server, General Purpose |
M8a vs. M8i |
Up to ~35% higher OLTP throughput and ~47% higher OLAP throughput on 4XL |
|
Electricity consumption |
M8a vs. M8i |
~320 W vs. ~600 W |
|
RDS Performance as Reported by AWS |
AMD-based vs. comparable x86 instances |
Up to 70% higher throughput for common instance sizes |
To the 1-Workload-Check
Phase 1: Setup
Phase 2: Analysis
Phase 3: Result
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