What is an EC2 Instance? Its Types, Features & Benefits

AWS always tops the chart when it comes to the shared public cloud. Their services are reliable and they are offered at a low-cost infrastructure. One of the best AWS services that are widely popular is AWS EC2 Instance. While there are many services that are being offered by AWS, EC2 stands on top of those. So, if you are willing to find the answer to the question of what is an ec2 instance then you have landed on the right page.

Here we are going to dig all about this amazing service from Amazon and learn what are the types and various features of this service. Later we are going to discuss how you can make the best career in these services if you find an interest in the same. You can go for AWS Devops Certification and have a great career in this field. So let us now begin this knowledge full journey and learn all about EC2 Instance.

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What is AWS EC2 Instance?

There are many applications that are needed to be run on the AWS (Amazon Web Services), and to help the smooth functioning of those services, Amazon EC2 instance is a virtual server that is present as Amazon’s Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2). As we know that AWS is an evolving cloud computing platform, there is a service needed which will enable the business subscribers to run the various applications in the environment present for computing. EC2 works as that service. If the company is looking for an unlimited set of virtual machines, then EC2 can be the answer for the same.

Along with the many services offered by Amazon, it also provides various kinds of instances which will depend on the CPU, memory, storage, and other networking resources. This depends on the needs of the users and each of these types is available in various workload types and requirements.

So, when you are choosing the EC2 instance for your work, you have a plethora of options for you and then you can choose the right one at your convenience. When you are using this service, you will be able to develop and deploy your changes and features faster compared to the traditional methods.

The use of EC2 will eliminate the need for the hardware upfront. Using this, you can manage the storage and have a better configuration for your security and networking. You can choose as many servers as you need for the same. It will drastically reduce the need to forecast the traffic which is going to help you to handle the various changes that come during the application development.

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Types of EC2 Instances

Now that we have learned about what is aws ec2 instance, we should know about the types of EC2 instances so that we know what services the users can have when they are using EC2 for their applications. As there are various instance types that are being offered by Amazon, it is better to go through each of them and learn all about them so that the company can find the most suitable one for the work. The instances are mentioned below:

General Purpose Instances

If you are looking for an instance that can help you balance out the computing, memory, and networking resources, then you can choose the general-purpose instance. The purposes for which this instance is being used can be for application servers, small and medium databases, backend servers for companies, and gaming servers. This is best when you are looking for a balance between the various resources available at your disposal.

Compute Optimized Instances

When you have a high demand for computing then you should look for the compute-optimized instances. They are very good for application servers, gaming servers, and also web applications. The main difference between the general and the compute-optimized instances is that in compute instances, you can expect high performance and they can be used when the intensive need for computing is present. If we talk about the examples for this, then scientific and financial modeling and simulation, machine learning could be the few examples.

Memory-Optimized Instances

Now if you are looking for instances that could help you have ultra-fast access to the data and also help you to deliver better performance, then going for memory-optimized instances can be the right choice. They are high-speed, solid-state drives that could be used for applications when there is a need for more memory and less CPU power. They include open-source databases and real-time big data analysis as well as in-memory caches.

Storage Optimized Instances

When you have large datasets on the local storage then going for the storage optimized instances is the best option. If you are in need of the instances for the application that will need I/O performance then this is the best way to go. They are very well suitable for applications that require memory for data processing as well as data warehousing. They are suitable for the analytics workloads and also help in log processing due to their better design to manage the input and output of the instances.

Graphics Processing Unit

If you are looking for instances that could help you to run the graphics-intensive application in a faster mode, then this is the best choice. The system that is dedicated to gaming and design work relies on the GPU and the advantage can be taken as graphical user interfaces can be rendered along with the improvement in compression speeds. The database queries can be run in a faster way. This is the best option if you are looking for applications where there is heavy use of graphics.

Accelerated Computing Instances

When you need the hardware accelerators, you can use these types of instances in your organization. This will help in boosting the data processing and they are best for the graphics application as well streaming for the various platforms.

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Benefits of EC2 Instance

Let us now have a brief glance over the benefits that you are going to have when you are using these services.

Have full Control

If you want to have complete control over your instances then there is no better choice than this. In this, the rot access is being provided which helps them to interact as they would do with any system. While they are recovering the data on their boot partition, this service gives them an option to stop the instance at any time.

Reliable and secure

If you are worried that this is not going to be secured, then you are mistaken. The services provided by AWS are very secure and so is EC2 instance. They offer a highly reliable ecosystem that can be used for speed and predictability. As these are being run under the Amazon-proven network and data center, this is highly secure. When you are using the EC2 instance, you will work with the Amazon VPC and this will enhance the security for better networking and resourcing. Moreover, the users are given the choice to decide which instances will be revealed on the internet and which should remain private for them only.

Elastic Web-Scale Computing

As the name suggests, this service is going to help the users to expand the capacity as per their needs within the minutes, which generally takes longer than that. Many servers can be run in parallel with these instances. These services give the user a choice to increase or decrease the automation as per their needs.

Cost Saving

The services that you are going to get with the EC2 instance are inexpensive. The users can select the plan as per their requirements. This will help them to save costs that they had to pay unnecessarily. The user has to pay a very low amount as compared to other services out there.

Flexibility

As discussed above, there are many types of instances that the users can choose from. This provides the user with the flexibility not only to choose the type of instances but they can also choose the software packages, the instance storage and operating system for them as well. Not only this, the configuration can be changed along with the configuration of the memory.

Easy to start

The services that come with EC2 instance are very easy to start. You can simply go to the AWS Management console and from there you can choose the pre-configured package as well and deploy this software. This can be done in no time and you are all ready to use this platform.

A complete solution

The best thing about Amazon services is that they are compatible with the best services. The EC2 works well with the Amazon RDS, S3, DynamoDB as Amazon SQS. Using these services, the whole team will be able to process, compute, and can have a complete storage solution. This feature of co-existing with other AWS services helps the users to have a complete solution for their application development needs.

Also Read: AWS Solution Architect Certification Path

Features for EC2

There are so many features that enable users to use this service for their platform, and some of them are explained below:

Storage

There are Amazon’s Elastic Block Storage services that will help the users to attach the hard drives whenever needed in the EC2 services. Using this, the users will be able to up and down the storage needs for their work and this makes it highly customizable.

Operating system

If we look at the operating systems that are supported by EC2 instances there are- Linux, windows server, CentOS, and Debian as well. This makes it the first choice for many developers.

IP Address from Amazon

There are various Amazon’s Elastic IP addresses that can be associated with the instances that are used in the EC2 instances. There could be the need to move the IP address from one instance to another and using this, this can be done without the help of the network administrator. For the failover cluster, this becomes an ideal choice then.

Scaling can be automated

The EC2 Auto Scaling from Amazon can be used to increase or decrease the capacity of the EC2 virtual servers and this helps to cut the cost and increase the performance as well. This auto-scaling is very beneficial when temporary scaling is required with increased traffic.

EC2 Fleet

With time, the users will need the services that help them to deploy the instances as a single server. So, this can be done with Amazon EC2 Fleet services. The fleet will enable the users to launch, stop as well as terminate the EC2 instance whenever needed with just one action. The best part is that it can be integrated into the existing management tools in EC2 instances and the workload can be adjusted as per the need.

Resume and pause the instances

When you are using the EC2 instances, the instances can be paused and resumed from the same state whenever needed. Using this, the incurring charges can be saved when there are too many resources and the instance storage can not handle all at once.

CloudWatch

There are many applications that are deployed on AWS, so this service helps in monitoring those AWS cloud services. The services provided by Cloud Watch include the analysis, collection, and storing of historical as well as real time performance data. This can improve resource use along with cost optimization and changing workloads from time to time.

For More Updates about DevOps Read this : What is Serverless Computing

Summing Up

In this blog, we have discussed all the EC2 instances and how there are various kinds of instances available to the users. These ones can be used by the users as per their requirements, CPU limit, and storage needs. There are various workloads that keep on existing with the needs and demands. There are constant releases that help the users to have all the latest features. We have understood various benefits and features of EC2 instances and how this is becoming one of the first choices for the developers for application development.

So, if you are also leaning towards the various services offered by Amazon and want to learn more about AWS, go for our AWS Devops Certification that will you get in-depth understanding of EC2 Instances and everything around it with real-time examples which will enable you to have a better understanding. Enroll now and unlock a career with a great potential.

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