Get started with AWS Cloud Services -- EC2

Elastic Compute Cloud(EC2)

Amazon EC2 provides Scalable Computing resources within the AWS Cloud:

• You can use Amazon EC2 to launch as many or as few Virtual Servers as needed, along with Configurable Security, networking and storage.

• Amazon EC2 enables you to Scale up or Scale down the instance.

• Amazon EC2 is having two Storage options i.e. EBS(Elastic Block Store) & Instance Store.

• Preconfigured templates are available known as Amazon Machine Image(AMI) for easy deployment.

• By default, when you create an EC2 account with Amazon, your account is limited to a maximum of 20 instances per EC2 Region with two default High I/O instances.

Types of EC2 Instances:

1. General Purpose – Balanced performance for diverse workloads.

2. Compute Optimized – Ideal for compute-intensive tasks.

3. Memory Optimized – Designed for memory-intensive applications.

4. Accelerated Computing (GPU) – Suitable for graphics and machine learning workloads.

5. Storage Optimized – Optimized for high-performance storage needs.

6. High Memory – Supports workloads requiring extensive RAM.

7. Previous Generation – Older instance types still available for use.

Current EC2 Purchasing Options:

1. On-Demand Instances: Pay for compute capacity by the hour or second, with no long-term commitments. Ideal for short-term, unpredictable workloads that cannot be interrupted.

2. Savings Plans: A flexible pricing model offering significant savings (up to 72%) compared to On-Demand pricing, in exchange for a commitment to a consistent amount of usage (measured in $/hour) for a 1- or 3-year term.

3. Reserved Instances (Standard and Convertible): Provide a discount (up to 75% off On-Demand) in exchange for a commitment to a specific instance configuration for a 1- or 3-year term. Standard RIs offer higher discounts, while Convertible RIs provide flexibility to change attributes as long as the exchange results in the creation of Reserved Instances of equal or greater value.

4. Spot Instances: Allow you to bid on unused EC2 capacity, offering savings of up to 90% compared to On-Demand prices. Suitable for fault-tolerant, flexible applications that can withstand interruptions.

5. Dedicated Hosts: Physical servers fully dedicated to your use, enabling you to utilize existing per-socket, per-core, or per-VM software licenses and meet compliance requirements.

6. Dedicated Instances: Instances that run on hardware dedicated to a single customer, providing physical isolation at the host hardware level from instances belonging to other AWS accounts.

7. Capacity Reservations: Enable you to reserve capacity for your EC2 instances in a specific Availability Zone for any duration, ensuring that you have the compute capacity you need, when you need it.