Introduction
Amazon EC2 (Elastic Compute Cloud) is a core component of Amazon Web Services (AWS), providing scalable computing capacity in the cloud. Launched in 2006, EC2 has revolutionized the way businesses approach computing resources, offering a flexible, cost-effective alternative to traditional on-premises infrastructure.
Key Features and Characteristics
- Scalability: EC2 allows users to easily scale computing resources up or down based on demand.
- Flexibility: Users can choose from a wide variety of instance types optimized for different use cases.
- Cost-effectiveness: Pay-as-you-go pricing model with options for reserved instances and spot instances for cost optimization.
- Reliability: Multiple Availability Zones and regions for high availability and fault tolerance.
- Security: Integration with AWS security features like Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) and security groups.
- Customization: Support for both Windows and Linux operating systems, with the ability to use custom Amazon Machine Images (AMIs).
Instance Types
EC2 offers a diverse range of instance types, each optimized for specific use cases:
- General Purpose: Balanced compute, memory, and networking resources (e.g., t3, m5)
- Compute Optimized: High-performance processors (e.g., c5, c6g)
- Memory Optimized: Fast performance for workloads that process large datasets in memory (e.g., r5, x1)
- Accelerated Computing: Hardware accelerators or co-processors (e.g., p3, g4)
- Storage Optimized: High, sequential read/write access to large datasets (e.g., i3, d2)
Pricing Models
- On-Demand Instances: Pay for compute capacity by the hour or second with no long-term commitments.
- Reserved Instances: Purchase instances in advance for significant discounts (1 or 3-year terms).