AMD EPYC processor lineup to help Oracle Lower Cloud Cost

At Oracle OpenWorld 2018, which is an important event for many IT enthusiasts all over the world, AMD (Advanced Micro Devices) unveiled their first top of the line AMD EPYC processor based instance on the robust Oracle Cloud Infrastructure.

The recent announcement marks Oracle as the largest public cloud provider to have a Bare Metal version on AMD EPYC processors.

The EPYC "E" Series Processor Advantage

These processors will offer one of the lowest prices available on the market at $0.03/ Core hour. The AMD EPYC "E" series lineup will offer bare metal, Standard "E2" instance, starting immediately as the first instance type. The AMD EPYC instance costs up to 66 percent less than the average per core cost compared to the rest of the competition and provides the most price to performance ratio on any public cloud.

The release also features one, two, four and eight core VM Shapes. The new technology takes advantages of increasing core counts, high memory bandwidth as well as the sharp increase in I/O capability. The EPYC processors also offer some advanced security features. Even though the processors support Oracle applications, they are equally good for general purpose cloud computing as well.

Clay Magouyrk, Senior Vice President, software development, Oracle Cloud Infrastructure said, "With the launch of the AMD instance, Oracle has once again demonstrated that we are focused on getting the best value and performance to our customers."

The AMD EPYC platform offers the highest memory bandwidth compared to any public cloud service with speeds greater than 269 GB/sec. When combined with the increase in performance, these processors help customers get the best bang for their buck as they make the transition to the cloud.

"We are delighted that Oracle is adding AMD EPYC processors to its cloud offerings. The EPYC processor provides more cores, more memory bandwidth, and outstanding stability. That translates into leadership TCO for cloud deployments2. It is a perfect fit for Oracle customers running their business applications in the cloud," said Forrest Norrod, senior vice president and general manager, Datacenter and Embedded Solutions Business Group, AMD. "Our work with Oracle highlights how the EPYC processors' unique design offers cloud users a significant price/performance advantage."

In the HPC space, the higher bandwidth makes the EPYC instances suitable for customers who are using the cloud for weather modeling, computational fluid dynamics, simulation and crash analysis in aviation and automotive manufacturing, and oil and gas exploration. When it came to real life performance, the EPYC processor based instance helped reduce the total cost up to 30 percent as well as a significant reduction on the overall runtime.

Compared to the x86 instances, the EPYC instances offer up to 64 cores per server and up to 33 percent more memory channel making it ideal for data analytics workloads which demand higher core count and greater memory bandwidth. AMD already has partnerships with leading Hadoop ecosystem providers such as Cloudera, Hortonworks, MapR, and Transwarp. A 10TB Terasort run based on the AMD instance resulted in a 40 percent saving in cost per Terasort.

Availability of Instances on Oracle Cloud

Oracle Cloud Infrastructure’s U.S. East-Ashburn region will immediately have Standard E2 instances backed by AMD EYC series E processor followed by London region by the end of October and will be available in other U.S. and European regions by the end of the year.

In conclusion, the Oracle cloud is counting on the savings that are brought by the deployment of AMD's EPYC E series processor lineup.

What do you think? Should other cloud vedors support EPYC processor? Do let everyone in comments below.