AWS EC2 is one of the web services available in the Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud, which allows the client to have secure and resizable computing capacity in the public cloud. This particular function makes web-scale computing more convenient for programmers and is designed with an interface that allows the user to obtain and configure capacity with a minimum amount of friction.
The EC2 allows the programmer to completely control the resources available to them and runs on Amazon’s proprietary computing environment. In addition, EC2 allows the user to create and boot up server instances in minutes, which allows for a highly scalable capacity as the requirements of the client changes.
In addition, this service only charges the user for the capacity that is actually used, minimizing wastage. EC2 is meant to be able to provide sysadmins and programmers the proper tools to be able to build resilient applications and to be able to account for common failure scenarios.
AWS EC2 Benefits
Elastic Web-Scale Computing
The EC2 service allows the user to change the capacity available to them in a span of minutes rather than in hours or even days, as some other services would offer. The user is also able to instance single, or multiple server instances in the tens or hundreds simultaneously if they need to. As this service is controlled by APIs, the user can enable their application to scale itself automatically.
Complete Control
The user is able to fully control the instances they create through EC2. The programmer has root access to each instance they create and is able to interact with them like regular machines. Furthermore, they can stop a created instance while keeping the data, and reboot the instance using the web APIS provided
Flexibility in Cloud Hosting
The user is able to choose from differing types of operating systems, application packages, and even instance types. The EC2 service allows the client to choose the CPU configuration, memory configuration, and even the boot partition size needed for their choice of OS and application
Easy Integration
The EC2 service enjoys a high amount of integration with other Amazon Web Services applications, such as the Simple Storage Service (S3), Relational Database Service (RDS), and the Virtual Private Cloud (VPC), providing a complete solution for multiple objectives across a multitude of applications and configurations.
Highly Reliable
The EC2 service is an environment that allows the client to run replacement instances rapidly and on-demand. In addition, the service level agreement of the EC2 commits 99.95 % availability for all regions, and this is backed up by the data infrastructure of Amazon, allowing for consistent uptime and availability.
Security
The EC2 service is integrated with VPC to allow all the resources to have robust security and networking options and functionality. All the user’s instances are placed in a virtual private cloud with a user-specified IP address, which allows the user to define which instances can connect to the internet and which instances remain closed off.
In addition, there are access control lists that allow the client to monitor and control network access to their instances. If the client so wishes, they can use their pre-existing infrastructure to the virtual private cloud using a virtual private network connection provided by Amazon.
All EC2 resources can function as dedicated instances in case the client wishes additional isolation. Dedicated Host functionality, which are dedicated physical servers are also available for use if the client wishes, which allows the client to use server – bound software licenses, cutting their costs.
Inexpensive
Thanks to the scale of Amazon’s services, the client pays a relatively low rate for the computing capacity that they actually make use of. There are multiple purchasing options available to the client,
and the following are a few examples of payment options:
On-Demand Instances
This option allows the client to pay for capacity on an hourly basis, which is useful if the client does not yet want to set up a long term arrangement. This setup allows the client to scale their capacity depending on what their program needs, and they will only pay for the instances that they actually use. This setup is beneficial for the client that wishes to avoid having to plan for the costs of hardware maintenance.
Reserved Instances
Reserved instances can provide the client with a large discount as compared to on-demand instance pricing, up to a seventy-five percent discount, but this would require the client to plan and reserve the instances that they will use in advance, reducing their possible flexibility.
Spot Instances
This payment setup allows a client to bid on spare EC2 capacity of Amazon, often at a discount as compared to on-demand instance pricing, though while this comes at a lower price, the availability of these instances is much more limited as compared to on-demand instances.