AWS EC2

AWS EC2 (Elastic Cloud Computing)

Amazon EC2 provides scalable compute capacity in the cloud, enabling users to launch virtual servers (instances) tailored to their workloads. It offers flexible pricing options and a variety of instance types to suit diverse application needs.

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Features of Amazon EC2

1. Scalability: Instances can scale up or down automatically with Auto Scaling.

2. Diverse Instance Types: Optimized configurations for general, compute, memory, and storage needs.

3. Elastic Block Storage (EBS): Persistent, high-performance block storage for EC2 instances.

4. Networking: Advanced networking with Amazon VPC, Elastic IPs, and Security Groups.

5. Monitoring: Integrated with Amazon CloudWatch for real-time monitoring.

6. Security: Secure operating environment with fine-grained access control and encryption.

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Pricing Options for EC2 Instances

1. Pay-As-You-Go (On-Demand Instances)

   • Pay only for the compute time used.

   • No long-term commitment, suitable for short-term and unpredictable workloads.

2. Saving Plans

   • Flexible pricing model with up to 72% savings over On-Demand pricing.

   • Commit to a consistent amount of compute usage (e.g., measured in $/hour) for 1 or 3 years.

3. Reserved Instances

   • Significant discounts (up to 75%) compared to On-Demand pricing for 1 or 3-year commitments.

   • Best for predictable, steady-state workloads.

4. Spot Instances

   • Unused EC2 capacity offered at up to 90% discount compared to On-Demand pricing.

   • Ideal for fault-tolerant, flexible workloads like big data and CI/CD pipelines.

   • ⚠️ AWS can take the instance back at any moment after shorter interval notice

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Types of EC2 Instances

EC2 instances are categorized into families optimized for various workload requirements:

1. General Purpose

   • Balanced compute, memory, and storage for diverse applications.

   • Examples: t4g, t3, t2, m6i, m5.

2. Compute Optimized

   • High-performance processors for compute-intensive tasks.

   • Examples: c7g, c6i, c5, c4.

3. Memory Optimized

   • High memory for applications like large-scale databases and in-memory analytics.

   • Examples: r6i, r5, x2idn, z1d.

4. Storage Optimized

   • High throughput and low latency storage for data-intensive tasks.

   • Examples: i4i, i3, d2, h1.

5. Accelerated Computing

   • Instances with GPUs and FPGAs for machine learning and video processing.

   • Examples: p4d, p3, g4dn, g5.

6. Bare Metal

   • Provides direct access to physical hardware for specialized workloads.

   • Examples: m5.metal, c5.metal, r5.metal.