Amazon Demonstrates How to Save $1 Billion on Server Upgrades
Amazon is going to save itself $1 billion by adding an extra year to the life of each Amazon Web Services (AWS) server it uses.
Making your desktop PC or laptop last an extra year delays spending the money on a new one, and that seems to be what Amazon is doing here, only for millions of servers spread across 26 geographical locations. As to how Amazon engineers extended the lifespan of the server hardware, it's all thanks to software.
As The Register reports, Amazon Chief Financial Officer Brian Olsavsky announced the forthcoming savings during the company's latest earnings call. "We're prospectively updating the useful life of our servers and networking equipment, beginning in January," Olsavsky told investors. "We've been operating at scale for over 15 years, and we continue to refine our software to run more efficiently on the hardware."
More efficient software puts less stress on the hardware, which means it lasts longer. In this case, Amazon believes a whole year of extra life will be realized. The estimate for a new AWS server lifespan has also been revised, with the hardware now expected to last five years and associated networking kit lasting six years. The other positive knock-on effect of this change is Amazon's own internal hardware infrastructue will enjoy the same extended-life benefits.
There's one final positive effect worth mentioning—if you delay purchasing new hardware by a year, then the new kit you do end up buying will have the next generation of processor inside, as well as enjoying any advancements made to storage drives and RAM modules. So not only is Amazon saving money, it will be upgrading to faster, more efficient servers than would have been available a year earlier.
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