What is Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2)?

EC2 stands for Elastic Compute Cloud a service from Amazon Web Services (AWS). EC2 is an on-demand computing service on the AWS cloud platform. It lets you rent virtual computers to run your applications. You pay only for what you use.

Instead of buying and managing your own servers, EC2 gives you a virtual machine, where you can run websites, apps, or even big data tasks. You can choose how much memory, storage, and processing power you need- and stop it when you're done. EC2 offers security, reliability, high performance, and cost-effective infrastructure to meet demanding business needs.

You can deploy your applications in EC2 servers without any worrying about the underlying infrastructure. You configure the EC2-Instance in a very secure manner by using the VPC, Subnets, and Security groups. You can scale the configuration of the EC2 instance you have configured based on the demand of the application by attaching the autoscaling group to the EC2 instance. You can scale up and scale down the instance based on the incoming traffic of the application.

The following figure shows the EC2-Instance which is deployed in VPC (Virtual Private Cloud).

Use Cases of Amazon EC2 (Elastic Compute Cloud)

The following are the use cases of Amazon EC2:

1. Deploying Application

In the AWS EC2 instance, you can deploy your application like .jar,.war, or .ear application without maintaining the underlying infrastructure.

2. Scaling Application

Once you deployed your web application in the EC2 instance know you can scale your application based upon the demand you are having by scaling the AWS EC2-Instance.

3. Deploying The ML Models

You can train and deploy your ML models in the EC2-instance because it offers up to 400 Gbps), and storage services purpose-built to optimize the price performance for ML projects.

4. Hybrid Cloud Environment

You can deploy your web application in EC2-Instance and you can connect to the database which is deployed in the on-premises servers.

5. Cost-Effective

Amazon EC2-instance is cost-effective so you can deploy your gaming application in the Amazon EC2-Instances

AWS EC2 Instance Types

Different Amazon EC2 instance types are designed for certain activities. Consider the unique requirements of your workloads and applications when choosing an instance type. This might include needs for computing, memory, or storage.

The AWS EC2 Instance types are as follows:

• General Purpose Instances
• Compute Optimized Instances
• Memory-Optimized Instances
• Storage Optimized Instances
• Accelerated Computing Instances

1. General Purpose Instances

• It provides the balanced resources for a wide range of workloads.
• It is suitable for web servers, development environments, and small databases.

Examples: T3, M5 instances.

2. Compute Optimized Instances

• It provides high-performance processors for compute-intensive applications.
• It will be Ideal for high-performance web servers, scientific modeling, and batch processing.

Examples: C5, C6g instances.

3. Memory-Optimized Instances

• High memory-to-CPU ratios for large data sets.
• Perfect for in-memory databases, real-time big data analytics, and high-performance computing (HPC).

Examples: R5, X1e instances.

4. Storage Optimized Instances

• It provides optimized resource of instance for high, sequential read and write access to large data sets.
• Best for data warehousing, Hadoop, and distributed file systems.

Examples: I3, D2 instances.

5. Accelerated Computing Instances

• It facilitates with providing hardware accelerators or co-processors for graphics processing and parallel computations.
• It is ideal for machine learning, gaming, and 3D rendering.

Examples: P3, G4 instances.

Features of AWS EC2 (Elastic Compute Cloud)

The following are the features of AWS EC2:

1. AWS EC2 Functionality

EC2 provides its users with a true virtual computing platform, where they can use various operations and even launch another EC2 instance from this virtually created environment. This will increase the security of the virtual devices. Not only creating but also EC2 allows us to customize our environment as per our requirements, at any point of time during the life span of the virtual machine. Amazon EC2 itself comes with a set of default AMI(Amazon Machine Image) options supporting various operating systems along with some pre-configured resources like RAM, ROM, storage, etc. Besides these AMI options, we can also create an AMI curated with a combination of default and user-defined configurations. And for future purposes, we can store this user-defined AMI, so that next time, the user won't have to re-configure a new AMI(Amazon Machine Image) from scratch. Rather than this whole process, the user can simply use the older reference while creating a new EC2 machine.

2. AWS EC2 Operating Systems

Amazon EC2 includes a wide range of operating systems to choose from while selecting your AMI. Not only are these selected options, but users are also even given the privilege to upload their own operating systems and opt for that while selecting AMI during launching an EC2 instance. Currently, AWS has the following most preferred set of operating systems available on the EC2 console.

• Amazon Linux
• Windows Server
• Ubuntu Server
• SUSE Linux
• Red Hat Linux

3. AWS EC2 Software

Amazon is single-handedly ruling the cloud computing market, because of the variety of options available on EC2 for its users. It allows its users to choose from various software present to run on their EC2 machines. This whole service is allocated to AWS Marketplace on the AWS platform. Numerous software like SAP, LAMP, Drupal, etc are available on AWS to use.

4. AWS EC2 Scalability and Reliability

EC2 provides us the facility to scale up or scale down as per the needs. All dynamic scenarios can be easily tackled by EC2 with the help of this feature. And because of the flexibility of volumes and snapshots, it is highly reliable for its users. Due to the scalable nature of the machine, many organizations like Flipkart, and Amazon rely on these days whenever humongous traffic occurs on their portals.

Pricing of AWS EC2 (Elastic Compute Cloud) Instance

Amazon EC2 offers several ways to pay for the cloud computing power you need, whether you're just getting started or running large-scale workloads. Here's a breakdown of all the pricing models available:

1. Free Tier

If you're new to AWS, you can try EC2 for free with the Free Tier. You get up to 750 hours per month of t2.micro instances for one year, which is perfect for learning, experimenting, or running lightweight applications. If you exceed the free limits, you’ll only pay for what’s above the Free Tier.

2. On-Demand Instances

With On-Demand Instances, you pay for the compute power you use, by the second, with a minimum of 60 seconds. There’s no need to commit to a long-term contract or make any upfront payments. This is ideal for applications that are unpredictable or for short-term use cases where you only want to pay for what you need.

3. Savings Plans

If you know you'll need consistent computing power, Savings Plans let you commit to a certain level of usage over a 1- or 3-year term. By making this commitment, you can save significantly compared to On-Demand pricing. The best part is that you can apply the discount across a wide range of instances, so it's flexible based on your needs.

4. Reserved Instances

Reserved Instances give you the chance to commit to a specific instance type and region for 1 or 3 years. This helps reduce costs by reserving capacity in advance. It's great for steady applications that need reliable performance over a long period. Reserved Instances can also give you significant discounts compared to On-Demand pricing.

5. Spot Instances

Spot Instances let you bid for unused EC2 capacity, which can give you up to 90% off the regular price. They’re perfect for tasks that are flexible and can be interrupted, like batch processing or big data analysis. However, AWS can terminate these instances with little notice, so they work best for non-urgent workloads.

6. Dedicated Hosts

Dedicated Hosts provide you with a physical EC2 server fully dedicated to your use. This is ideal if you have server-bound software licenses or need to meet specific compliance requirements. You can also use this option as part of a Savings Plan to save on costs. Dedicated Hosts allow you to have more control over the physical infrastructure for your applications.

7. On-Demand Capacity Reservations

With On-Demand Capacity Reservations, you can reserve EC2 capacity in a specific Availability Zone for any period of time you choose. This ensures you have the compute resources you need during peak times or for workloads that need guaranteed availability. Unlike Reserved Instances, you don’t have to commit to a long-term contract.

8. Per-Second Billing

EC2’s per-second billing means that you only pay for the exact compute time you use, down to the second. There’s no need to pay for unused minutes or extra time, making it a more cost-effective option for short-lived tasks or workloads that are dynamic in nature.

Create AWS Free Tier Account

Amazon Web Service(AWS) is the world’s most comprehensive and broadly adopted cloud platform, offering over 200 fully featured services from data centers globally. Millions of customers including the fastest-growing startups, largest enterprises, and leading government agencies are using AWS to lower costs, become more agile, and innovate faster. AWS offers new subscribers a 12-month free tier to get hands-on experience with all AWS cloud services. To know more about how to create an AWS account for free refer to Amazon Web Services (AWS) – Free Tier Account Set up.

Get Started With Amazon EC2 (Elastic Compute Cloud) Linux Instances

Step 1: First login into your AWS account. Once you are directed to the management console. From the left click on "Services" and from the listed options click on EC2.

Step 2: Afterward, you will be redirected to the EC2 console. Here is the image attached to refer to various features in EC2.

Step 3: To know more about creating an EC2-Instance in a Step-by-Step guide refer to the Amazon EC2 – Creating an Elastic Cloud Compute Instance.

Benefits of Amazon EC2

The following are the benefits of Amazon EC2:

• Scalability: It helps to easily scale the instances up or down based on the demand with ensuring the optimal performance and cost-efficiency.
• Flexibility: It provides wide variety of instance types and configurations for matching different workload requirements and operating systems.
• Cost-Effectiveness: It comes with providing Pay-as-you-go model with options like On-Demand, Reserved, and Spot Instances for managing cost efficiently.
• High Availability and Reliability: It offers multiple geographic regions and availability zones for strong fault tolerance and disaster recovery.

Best Practices of Amazon EC2

The following are the best practices of Amazon EC2:

• Optimize Instance Selection: It helps in choosing the right instance type for your workload to balance the performance and cost.
• Implement Security Measures: On using the security groups, VPC, and IAM roles for control access and permissions.
• Enable Monitoring and Logging: It facilitates with utilizing cloudwatch to monitor the instance performance and setup the alarms.
• Automate and Backup: It helps in using the autoscaling features for automatically adjusting the instance capacity based on traffic.

Conclusion

Amazon EC2 is a powerful, flexible, and cost-efficient cloud computing solution for businesses. Whether you're deploying applications, running web services, or scaling workloads, EC2 provides the tools to help you succeed in the cloud. With its variety of instance types, flexible pricing options, and secure environment, EC2 is a reliable choice for businesses of all sizes.