Save 20% on AWS Storage Costs in 30 Minutes
The easiest way to cut your AWS bill - upgrade your storage with zero downtime and immediate savings.
Save 20% on Storage Costs
30 minutes • Zero downtime • Immediate results
If you use Amazon Web Services (AWS), there's probably an easy way to cut your storage costs by 20% right now. It takes about 30 minutes and won't disrupt your services at all.
What This Is About
AWS has two main types of storage for your servers:
gp2 - Old & Expensive
The older, more expensive option that most people still use
gp3 - New & Better
The newer, cheaper option that often performs better
Good news: If your AWS account is more than a couple years old, you're probably still using the expensive gp2 storage. You can switch to gp3 instantly with no downtime.
The Numbers Don't Lie
Monthly Cost Comparison: GP2 vs GP3
1TB Volume
10TB Volume
100TB Volume
AWS Pricing Breakdown (US East)
Not Just Cheaper - Actually Better
Performance Comparison: GP2 vs GP3
GP2 (Old)
GP3 (New)
Better Performance
3,000 IOPS baseline vs variable performance
More Consistent
Reliable performance regardless of volume size
Flexible Scaling
Scale IOPS and throughput independently
Real Business Results
The Simple 4-Step Process
Assessment (10 minutes)
- • Log into AWS console
- • Go to "EC2" → "Volumes"
- • Look for volumes with type "gp2"
- • Make a list of volumes to upgrade
Backup Check (5 minutes)
- • Confirm regular backups are working
- • Note which servers use which volumes
- • Plan upgrade order (least critical first)
The Upgrade (15 minutes)
- • Select volume in AWS console
- • Choose "Modify Volume"
- • Change type from "gp2" to "gp3"
- • Keep same size and performance
- • Apply the change (happens instantly!)
Verification (5 minutes)
- • Check applications are running normally
- • Verify volume shows as "gp3" type
- • Monitor for any issues (rarely any)
- • Document the change
Your 3-Week Implementation Plan
Week 1: Planning
Inventory and prepare for migration (1 hour total)
- • Inventory all gp2 volumes
- • Identify critical vs non-critical systems
- • Plan migration order
Week 2: Testing
Start small and verify (30 minutes total)
- • Begin with dev/staging environments
- • Migrate 1-2 non-critical production volumes
- • Monitor for any issues
Week 3: Full Migration
Complete the transition (2-4 hours total)
- • Migrate remaining volumes
- • Document all changes
- • Calculate and report savings
Common Questions
Q: Will this break anything?
A: No. The change happens instantly with no service interruption. We've done this hundreds of times.
Q: Can we undo it if there's a problem?
A: Yes, you can switch back to gp2, though you won't want to once you see the cost savings.
Q: How quickly will I see savings?
A: The reduced costs show up in your next AWS bill, typically within 24-48 hours.
Q: Do I need to change my applications?
A: No. Your applications won't know anything changed.
Measuring Your Success
- • Number of volumes migrated
- • Total storage size migrated
- • Estimated monthly savings
- • Actual cost reduction in AWS bill
- • Performance improvements
- • Time saved on management
- • Implementation: 2-4 hours
- • Annual savings: 20% of storage costs
- • Payback: Usually under 1 week
For Your Technical Team
Forward this section to your IT team:
Key Technical Points:
- • gp3 provides 3,000 IOPS baseline vs gp2's variable performance
- • gp3 allows independent scaling of IOPS and throughput
- • Modification happens online with no impact to instances
- • Cost reduction is immediate on next billing cycle
Best Practices:
- • Start with non-production environments
- • Set up CloudWatch monitoring
- • Update infrastructure-as-code templates
- • Document all changes for audit trail
The Bottom Line
This is probably the easiest money you'll ever save. For 30 minutes of work, you get 20% reduction in storage costs, better performance, no risk or downtime, and immediate results.