Overview

Amazon EC2 is one of AWS's core services, allowing you to rent virtual servers (called "instances") in the cloud. Instead of buying and maintaining physical servers, you can quickly launch virtual servers with your chosen operating system and computing power.

These virtual servers can be scaled up or down based on your needs. For example, if your application suddenly needs more processing power, you can easily upgrade to a more powerful instance type. Similarly, if you need more servers to handle increased traffic, you can launch additional instances within minutes.

EC2 instances come in different types optimized for various use cases, such as general computing, memory-intensive tasks, or heavy computational workloads. You only pay for what you use, making it more cost-effective than maintaining physical servers.

The service also provides features like security groups (virtual firewalls), elastic IP addresses (static public IP addresses), and the ability to run your instances in different geographical locations worldwide.

Example uses

Web Hosting: Running websites and web applications, from simple blogs to complex e-commerce platforms.
Application Servers: Hosting backend services for mobile apps or software applications.
Development and Testing: Creating temporary environments for testing new software or running development tools.
Batch Processing: Running periodic tasks like data analysis, image processing, or report generation.

Integration with other AWS services

EC2 works seamlessly with many other AWS services:

Amazon S3: Store and retrieve files and backups from your EC2 instances
Amazon RDS: Connect your EC2 instances to managed databases
Elastic Load Balancer: Distribute incoming traffic across multiple EC2 instances
Amazon CloudWatch: Monitor your EC2 instances' performance and set up alerts
AWS Auto Scaling: Automatically add or remove EC2 instances based on demand

Think of EC2 as the foundation for many cloud applications, similar to how a physical server would be the foundation in a traditional data center.

Amazon EC2

Documents

A Guide to EC2 Instance Types