Automatically optimize EBS volumes for 20% cost savings and higher performance

A few years ago, AWS announced the availability of Amazon EBS gp3 volumes. These are the latest generation of general-purpose SSD-based EBS volumes. They provide baseline performance of 3,000 IOPS and 125MB/s network throughput, regardless of volume size. GP3 volumes can scale up to 16,000 IOPS and adjust performance independently of storage size. Cost savings range significantly when converting to gp3, for example:

• gp2 volumes <= 1TB in size will see a flat 20% cost reduction
• gp2 volumes > 1TB will see 10-20% cost savings
• io1 volumes <= 16K IOPS will see on average 67% savings

Despite these benefits, many new customers we come across have yet to take advantage of the latest generation of Amazon EBS volumes.

Why migrate to gp3 volumes

After the gp3 volume type was released, we analyzed our own architecture deployed for customers. We realized a 93% cost savings by transitioning small, occasionally high-IOPS volumes to gp3, as opposed to overprovisioning larger gp2 volumes for moderate IOPS.

Turbot Guardrails customers were already benefiting from AWS > EC2 > Volume > Approved > Volume Type conrols to remove any unapproved volume types. This control ensured gp3 was the default standard moving forward. But AWS only made gp3 the default in late 2023, and that leaves a lot of legacy volumes to be optimized.

Now with the introduction of our latest AWS EC2 Volume configuration controls, Guardrails can automatically convert volumes immediately and ensure they are optimized for cost and performance.

How to migrate to gp3 volumes

To identify volumes that are not already gp3, you can run the AWS EBS Volume report.

With our latest EBS volume controls, you can go beyond the report to automatically migrate to gp3. The following EC2 volume policies work together to enable the automated migration control:

AWS > EC2 > Volume > Performance Configuration:
   AWS > EC2 > Volume > Performance Configuration > IOPS Capacity
   AWS > EC2 > Volume > Performance Configuration > Throughput
   AWS > EC2 > Volume > Performance Configuration > Type

The policy type hierarchy allows you to set your configurations for IOPs, throughput and volume type. For a simple use case, first set AWS > EC2 > Volume > Performance Configuration > Type to gp3, and then set AWS > EC2 > Volume > Performance Configuration to Enforce: Configured per Configuration > * policies.

Once enabled, Guardrails quickly identified the volumes and immediately converted each of them from gp2 to gp3 with their optimized throughput and IOPs, all while there was no downtime with the resources.

Using dynamic conditional logic for smarter gp3 conversions

With Turbot Guardrails, you can use calculated policies for smarter conversions. These policies enable you to set conditions based on IOPs, throughput, or volume type. For example, you can automatically convert any gp2 or io1 volume with less than 16,000 IOPs to gp3.

{%- if $.volume.volumeType and $.volume.iops -%}
 {%- if $.volume.volumeType in ['gp2', 'io1'] and $.volume.iops <= 16000 -%}
    gp3
  {%- else -%}
    {{ $.volume.volumeType }}
  {%- endif -%}
{%- endif -%}

For those not familiar with calculated policies: any metadata from your cloud provider — Turbot Guardrails or any other source — can be used as context in your calculated policy template.

Automate your FinOps project for major cost savings

Recently a Turbot Guardrails customer with over 30,000 Guardrails-managed EBS volumes saw a major cost savings opportunity: their older gp2 and io1 volumes were candidates for migration to gp3. That would cut their annual AWS EBS volume cloud spend by 29%, translating to over $2 million in annualized savings. It was achieved via automation with no downtime. Guardrails continuously monitored the progress across hundreds of accounts, and made the initial cost savings estimate as well as status reporting easy for the project team.

See it in action

Start saving on your AWS cloud spend

Start optimizing your AWS cloud expenses today. Turbot Guardrails not only helps in converting to gp3 for significant cost savings, it also enhances your cloud security posture and provides continuous FinOps controls automation. Try Turbot Guardrails with a 14-day free trial and see how much you can save.