What is Amazon EC2?
Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) is the foundational compute service of AWS, providing scalable virtual servers in the cloud. With over 1000 different instance types, you can choose the optimal combination of CPU, memory, storage, and network capacity.
EC2 allows you to launch virtual machines in minutes and scale as needed. You only pay for the compute power you actually use. Instances run on the AWS Nitro System platform, which provides nearly 100% of server resources for your workloads.
Core Features
- Over 1000 Instance Types: General Purpose, Compute, Memory, Storage, and GPU-optimized
- AWS Graviton: Arm-based processors with up to 40% better price-performance
- Auto Scaling: Automatic capacity adjustment based on load
- Spot Instances: Up to 90% discount for fault-tolerant workloads
- Nitro System: Highest performance through hardware virtualization
Typical Use Cases
Web Applications: EC2 forms the foundation for scalable web applications. Combined with Elastic Load Balancing and Auto Scaling, you can automatically handle load spikes.
Enterprise Applications: EC2 is suitable for migrating existing enterprise applications. For SAP, use Memory Optimized Instances (x2idn); for application servers, use m7i or c7i instances.
Machine Learning: For ML training, use P5 or P4d instances with NVIDIA GPUs. For cost-effective inference, Inf2 instances with AWS Inferentia2 offer up to 70% lower costs.
Benefits
- Instant scaling from one to thousands of servers
- Flexible pricing models: On-Demand, Reserved, Spot, Savings Plans
- Global availability in over 30 regions
- Integration with all AWS services
Integration with innFactory
As an AWS Reseller, innFactory supports you with Amazon EC2: architecture design, instance type selection, cost optimization with Savings Plans, and migration of existing workloads.
Available Tiers & Options
General Purpose
- Balanced compute/memory
- Cost-effective
- Not optimized for specific workloads
Compute Optimized
- High-performance processors
- Batch processing
- Higher cost
Memory Optimized
- Large datasets in memory
- High performance databases
- More expensive
Typical Use Cases
Technical Specifications
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Amazon EC2?
Amazon EC2 (Elastic Compute Cloud) is a web service that provides scalable compute capacity in the cloud. You can launch virtual servers in minutes and scale up or down as needed.
How is Amazon EC2 billed?
EC2 offers On-Demand (per-second billing), Reserved Instances (up to 72% discount for 1-3 years), Spot Instances (up to 90% discount for flexible workloads), and Savings Plans (flexible commitment).
Which EC2 instance type fits my requirements?
General Purpose (t3, m7i) for balanced workloads, Compute Optimized (c7i) for compute-intensive tasks, Memory Optimized (r7i) for databases, Accelerated Computing (p5, g6) for ML/AI.
How does Auto Scaling work with EC2?
EC2 Auto Scaling automatically adjusts the number of instances based on load. You define scaling rules and min/max limits. The system responds to load spikes within minutes.