AWS - Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2)

Table of contents

Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2)

Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2)

Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) is a web service provided by Amazon Web Services (AWS) that allows users to rent virtual servers, known as instances, in the cloud. With EC2, users can easily scale computing resources up or down according to their needs, paying only for the resources they consume, and without the need to invest in physical hardware.

Key features of Amazon EC2:

Virtual Instances: EC2 provides a variety of pre-configured virtual machine instances, each with different combinations of CPU, memory, storage, and network capacity. Users can choose from various instance types to match their specific workload requirements.
Flexible Pricing: EC2 offers different pricing models, including On-Demand, Reserved Instances, and Spot Instances. On-Demand instances allow users to pay for compute capacity by the hour or second without any long-term commitments. Reserved Instances offer significant cost savings for users who commit to a one- or three-year term. Spot Instances allow users to bid on unused EC2 capacity, potentially obtaining instances at a much lower cost.
Scalability: EC2 allows users to scale the number of instances up or down based on demand. This enables handling sudden traffic spikes or adjusting resources to accommodate varying workloads.
Security: EC2 provides various security features, including Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) integration, security groups, network access control lists (ACLs), and the ability to use AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) to control access to resources.
AMI (Amazon Machine Image): Users can create custom AMIs or use pre-built ones, which are templates containing the necessary software configurations to launch instances.
Elastic Block Store (EBS): EC2 instances can be associated with EBS volumes, which provide persistent block-level storage. EBS volumes can be easily attached, detached, and backed up as needed.
Load Balancing: EC2 instances can be combined with Elastic Load Balancing (ELB) to distribute incoming traffic across multiple instances, ensuring high availability and fault tolerance.
Auto Scaling: EC2 can be integrated with Auto Scaling, which automatically adjusts the number of instances based on predefined conditions, ensuring optimal performance and cost efficiency.
Integration with Other AWS Services: EC2 can be seamlessly integrated with various other AWS services, such as Amazon RDS, Amazon S3, AWS Lambda, and more, to create comprehensive and sophisticated cloud solutions.

EC2 is widely used by businesses of all sizes, developers, and individuals who require scalable and flexible compute resources in the cloud. It enables users to run a wide range of applications, from simple web servers to complex enterprise applications, without the burden of managing physical infrastructure.