Amazon EC2 (Elastic Compute Cloud) is AWS's service that lets you rent virtual servers (called instances) to run your applications, websites, and backend systems ā on-demand and scalable.
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Think of EC2 as a cloud-based computer (or server) that you can start, stop, and scale when needed.
š§© Key Features
| Feature |
Description |
| Elasticity |
Easily scale up/down or in/out based on traffic |
| Choice of OS |
Linux, Windows, macOS support |
| Various Instance Types |
Choose from compute, memory, storage, or GPU-optimized |
| Custom AMIs |
Use or create Amazon Machine Images to replicate setups |
| Security Groups |
Acts like a firewall to control traffic |
| Integration |
Works with S3, RDS, IAM, VPC, ELB, Auto Scaling, etc. |
| Pricing Options |
Pay-as-you-go, Reserved, or Spot Instances |
āļø EC2 Instance Types (Families)
| Family |
Optimized For |
Example Use Case |
| t4g, t3 |
General purpose |
Web servers, dev/test environments |
| m6i, m5 |
Balanced compute & memory |
App servers, small DBs |
| c7g, c6g |
Compute optimized |
Gaming servers, batch processing |
| r6i, r5 |
Memory optimized |
Large databases, in-memory caching |
| p4, g4 |
GPU/Accelerated computing |
Machine learning, rendering, video |
| d3, i4 |
Storage optimized |
Big data, log processing, NoSQL |
š How EC2 Works ā Simplified Flow
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Choose AMI (OS & software stack)
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Choose Instance Type (hardware config)
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Configure network, storage, security group
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Launch Instance ā EC2 is up and running
- Connect via SSH or RDP
- Deploy your app
š¦ Storage Options
| Type |
Description |
| EBS (Elastic Block Store) |
Persistent block storage (like a hard drive) |
| Instance Store |
Temporary storage that is lost on stop/terminate |
| EFS |
Shared file storage across multiple instances |
š° Pricing Models
| Type |
Description |
| EBS (Elastic Block Store) |
Persistent block storage (like a hard drive) |
| Instance Store |
Temporary storage that is lost on stop/terminate |
| EFS |
Shared file storage across multiple instances |
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Use Cases
- Hosting websites or web apps
- Running APIs or backend services
- Game servers, media streaming
- Machine learning training & inference
- Batch jobs or automation scripts
š Security & Monitoring
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IAM roles for access control
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Security groups for network rules
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CloudWatch for monitoring
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CloudTrail for activity auditing
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Key pairs for secure SSH/RDP login
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Summary
| Attribute |
Value |
| Service Type |
Compute (Virtual Servers) |
| Billing |
Hourly/secondly; various pricing models |
| OS Support |
Linux, Windows, macOS |
| Scalability |
Manual, Auto Scaling, or Elastic Load Balancing |
| Access |
SSH (Linux), RDP (Windows), API, Console |
