Difficulty: Easy
Description
These Aurora clusters spend enough on I/O that I/O-Optimized would cost at least 10% less overall. It removes I/O charges in exchange for higher instance and storage prices.
Selection Criteria
The Aurora cluster uses Standard storage class.
The cluster has been in constant use for the last 90 days.
I/O costs represent more than ~25% of total Aurora storage+I/O spend.
Expected Saving
Aurora Standard: $0.10/GB/month + $0.20 per million I/O requests.
Aurora IO-Optimized: $0.225/GB/month with no per-I/O charges.
The break-even point is when I/O costs exceed ~25% of total Aurora costs.
Example: a cluster with $100/month in storage and $50/month in I/O would save ~$12/month by switching to IO-Optimized.
Operational Impact
The storage class change is applied online — no instance restart or downtime required.
⚠️ Warning — 30-day lock-in: After switching to IO-Optimized, you cannot revert to Standard storage for at least 30 days. Validate the break-even analysis carefully before proceeding.