AWS: Cloud Servers

My reading notes for Code Fellows

AWS: Cloud Servers

AWS EC2

What is an EC2 Instance?

Amazon.com’s cloud-computing platform, Amazon Web Services, that allows users to rent virtual computers on which to run their own computer applications. An Amazon EC2 instance is a virtual server in Amazon’s Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) for running applications on the Amazon Web Services (AWS) infrastructure.

Each instamce of a virtual server is isolated from the other ones what are running on the same server.

source: wikipedia

Name 2 use cases for EC2.

  1. Run cloud-native and enterprise applications
  2. Scale for HPC applications

Provide 1 reason to use EC2 instead of Heroku.

Instance types are optimized to handle most (if not all) use cases.

EC2 For Humans

Where can we find EC2 on the AWS Console? EC2 is found under the Compute section of the AWS Console.

Explain the general difference between T2 Micro and XL. T2 micro is a type that is adequate for low to moderate network perfromance, while XL is designed to handle higher loads of network performance.

Explain a “Compute Cycle” to a non-technical friend. Compute cycles measure how much processing time your applications require.

Elastic Beanstalk

What is Elastic Beanstalk? A service provided by AWS to quickly get started with hosting web applications.

Describe the relationship between EC2 and Elastic Beanstalk. Behind the scenes, Elastic Beanstalk spins up virtual servers using AWS EC2.

Name some benefits of using Elastic Beanstalk.

  1. Fast and simple to deploy: Handles the deployment details of capacity provisioning, auto-scaling, load balancing, and application health monitoring. Within minutes, your application will be ready to use without any infrastructure or resource configuration work on your part.

  2. Scalable: It automatically scales your application up and down based on your application’s need using easily adjustable Auto Scaling settings.

  3. Developer productivity: operates the infrastructure and manages the application stack.

  4. Infrastructure Contol: Able to select the EC2 instance type that the application needs to run optimally.