What is AWS ec2?

Introduction 

One of the most comprehensive and vastly welcomed Cloud platforms, Amazon Web Services (AWS) offers Amazon EC2 service, which is by far the most used service among all the services provided by AWS. Amazon EC2 allows users to launch and conduct server instance management at all required times effectively.

In this read, we will talk about what is AWS EC2, types of instances in AWS, ec2 pricing, why Amazon elastic compute cloud, and more.

1. What is AWS ec2?
2. What is AWS Instance?
3. Types Of ec2 Instances In AWS
4. Features Of Instances In AWS
5. Benefits of Ec2 instances in AWS
6. Amazon Ec2 Pricing

1. What is AWS ec2?

To begin with, ec2 stands for Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud. Amazon Ec2 is a basic virtual machine with customizable hardware components and an OS. The system allows you to run various virtual computers and manage the same with a single hardware.

Elastic Compute Cloud is the highly used and primary service system in the massive AWS ecosystem. The cloud system provides multiple features, for instance, it facilitates computing on-demand and scales the Computing capacity in the Amazon cloud system.

Amazon instances free you from making additional up-front investments for hardware. Also, no extra baggage of maintaining rented hardware. The all-in-one virtual hardware is easy to use and lets you create and run applications at a higher speed. Adapting Elastic Computing Cloud in AWS allows you to launch multiple virtual servers. It also provides the control to scaling up or scaling down in correspondence with the rate of the site traffic.

Also, the system works with multi-volume workloads and is capable of provisioning and de-provisioning resources with respect to the on-going demand. This adaptable behavior of the system constitutes the word Elastic in Elastic Computing Cloud.

2. What is AWS Instance?

Ec2 instances are virtual environments that are disconnected from the foundation On-demand service. Here, an ec2 user can rent the virtual server or so-called instance as per requirement and effectively move/connect the applications into it. Aforesaid, using ec2 instances you can easily increase or decrease according to the website traffic dynamics.AWS Ec2 instances also eliminate your dependency on additional hardware and software investments and management.

3. Types Of ec2 Instances In AWS

Amazon has an immense ecosystem providing multiple AWS ec2 instance types. These ec2 instances can be used in different cases. We have listed all the types of ec2 instances with a brief explanation to aid you to choose the best instance as per your requirement. 

1) General Purpose Instances

Well known for its application in web servers and running deployment for gaming and mobile applications, General Purpose Instances is the most used ec2 instance type. They are explicitly designed for beginners with an easy to use application. General-purpose instances include – A1, M5, M5a, M4, T3, T3a, and T2.

2) Compute Optimized Instances

These ec2 instance types are ideal for raw compute power systems like scientific modeling, media transcoding,  web servers with high-performance, and gaming servers. They are pricier when compared to other instance types, but deploy faster. The expense is based on CPU, Instance storage, memory, EBS bandwidth, and network. Compute Optimized instances include – C5, C5n, and C4.

3) Memory-Optimized Instances

Memory-Optimized Instances are perfect for memory sensitive applications. They include a high-performance database, real-time massive data analytics, and more. Memory-optimized instances include – R5, R5a, R4, X1e, X1, and Z1d of high memory.

4) Storage Optimized Instances

If you require high SSD storage, it’s best to opt for Storage Optimized Instances. These ec2 types provide high sequential reading and writing formats for large volume data sets. Storage optimized instances include – I3, I3en, D2, and H1.

4. Features Of Instances In AWS

• They have pre-configured templates of Amazon Machine Images. These images can be used for servers and operating systems.
• Various Instance types are available in the Amazon ecosystem. They provide multiple options for easy configuration of your instance memory, CPU, storage, and networking. 
• Extremely safe to use with a secured login with key pairs.
• You can store your instance data in the storage volume provided. These instance store volumes erase the data when the instance stops working.
• It uses Amazon EBS Volumes to provide continual storage for your data.
• It also provides many real locations for your resources with the help of Regions and Availability zones. The resources include – instances, Amazon EBS Volumes, etc. 
• It provides a firewall that allows you to specify ports, protocols, and source IP range that reaches your instance. This is configured using the Security Groups.
• By default, the instances you create have dynamic IP. You can provide your instance with a static IP using Elastic IP Addresses.
• You can provide metadata for your instances in the form of Tags.
• It lets you configure your network such that it’s isolated from the rest of the AWS Cloud using Virtual Private Clouds(VPC)

5. Benefits of Ec2 instances in AWS

Ec2 instances in AWS mainly has 4 benefits:

• Auto-scaling
• Pay-as-you-go
• Increased Reliability
• Elasticity

Auto-scaling: We are already aware of how Netflix uses this feature to its advantage and provides a smooth crash-free experience. Basically, you get to scale up or scale down according to the website traffic dynamics.

Pay-as-you-go: Because the charges are billed on a per hour basis, you can customize your usage preference according to the requirement. This will also help you save on unnecessary costs.

Increased Reliability: The Amazon ec2 cloud system is spread worldwide, helping your business expand extensively. The one-stop service across the globe increases the load speed of your application. Also, you have the beneficiary of storing your application data in multiple AZs. So if you fail to access the data or lose data in one center, you can always rely on other AZs.

Elasticity: Instead of investing in 10 different low-configuration machines, you can use a single high-configuration device with a suitable On-demand operating system.

6. Amazon Ec2 Pricing

Amazon has a reasonable ec2 instance type pricing. AWS provides a free tier that encapsulates free 750 hours of usage for up to 1 year. Although to avail of the offer, only the T2.micro instance meant to be used on Windows and Linux AMIs.

Here is the On-demand Price listings:

• $0.096/hour for m5.large
• $0.085/hour for c5.large
• $0.133/hour for r4.large

And the Data Transfer IN is free from any point of location across the globe.

Data Transfer OUT:

From Ec2 to S3, Glacier, DynamoDB, SES, and SQS in the same region are FREE of cost.

From EC2 to S3, Glacier, DynamoDB, SES, and SQS in the different region is $0.020/GB

From ec2 to EC2, RDS, Redshift, ElastiCache, ELB, and ENI in the same AZ with private IP is FREE.

From ec2 to EC2, RDS, Redshift, ElastiCache, ELB, and ENI in the same AZ with public IP is $0.010/GB and from ec2 to EC2, RDS, Redshift, ElastiCache, ELB, and ENI in different AZs is $0.010/GB.

Conclusion

Before getting started with AWS, understanding Ec2 in AWS is very important. Now that you have understood briefly the basics of EC2 in AWS, your next step will be to learn how to create an EC2 instance. The steps followed are very simple and easy to understand. Therefore, get going with the next step.

If you are looking for an extensive course in Cloud Computing, then the 5.5-month online Postgraduate Certificate Program In Cloud Computing offered by Jigsaw Academy can be of help. This program helps interested learners become complete Cloud professionals.

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• Cloud Computing Certification: Best Options Available in 2020