• EC2 Instance Store provides temporary block-level storage for an EC2 instance. EC2 Instance Storage is physically attached to the host server. So, if the hardware fails, there is a risk of data loss.
• EC2 Instance Store provides better I/O performance, which makes it ideal for applications like buffer storage, scratch storage, cache, and other temporary storage. It is also used to store temporary data that you replicate across a fleet of instances, e.g., a load-balanced pool of web servers.
• EC2 Instance Store does not carry separate charges; it is part of EC2 instance usage.

Data persistence for Amazon EC2 instance store volumes

• Instance store volumes are attached only at instance launch. They cannot be detached from one instance to another nor attach the instance after the launch.
• The data on the instance store persists on reboot of the instance but the data is erased when the instance is stopped, hibernated, terminated.
• Here are key events that affect data persistence in the instance store to considered to how data behaves in the instance store:

• When creating an instance store-backed AMI, the instance store data is saved in S3. When a new instance is launched from this AMI, the stored data is restored to the instance store.
• In an Auto Scaling Group, if an instance fails a health check and is replaced, the new instance does not retain any data from the previous instance.

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