Understanding Use Cases and Cost of the AWS Compute Service

Compute resources are the processing power that provides the logic on how your applications will run in the cloud.

Think of a car's engine, transmission, and PC module (computer system) which are the core components that will determine the performance of your vehicle and how it interacts with other parts of your car.

• Computer resources may have multiple CPUs and Ram..etc
• Amazon compute services can be used at different quantities and for different lengths of time.

Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud

Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) allows you to deploy virtual servers in the AWS environment. Used in most software solutions in the cloud.

EC2 Service components

• AMIs
• Instance Types
• Instance Purchasing Options
• Tenancy
• User Data
• Storage Options
• Security

Amazon Machine Images

AMIs are templates used to define the configuration of new EC2 instances. Comes with an OS and applications along with additional custom configuration.

The AWS marketplaces provide developers with AMI that are configured per use case (security optimized, database migration)

Instance Types

Defines the size and power of an EC2. Goes from t2.nano for very small use cases (dev, testing) to very large and complex ones like m7gd.16xlarge.

Micro instances - Used for lower-traffic websites.

General Purpose - Small and medium size databases, test, development, and backend server

Compute Optimized - Used for high-performance web servers and cloud applications.

GPU Instance - used for graphic-intensive applications

FPGA Instance - accelerated instance used for low latency, genomics, and financial computing

Memory Optimized - for large-scale enterprise-class in-memory applications, such as performing real-time processing of unstructured data Storage Optimized - uses SSDs for fast read and write of storage

Core components

• vCPUs
• Memory
• Instance Storage
• Network Performance

Purchasing Options

On-demand - launch at any time, used for short use cases, flat fee (pay by the second). Best for testing and development environments.

Reserved - must be purchased for a set period of time (1 or 3-year time frames) for a discount of up to 75%. You can pay upfront in full, partially, or none.

Scheduled Instances - You pay for the reservations on a recurring schedule even when they are not in use.

Spot Instances - Bid for large unused EC2 compute resources at a very low price point. Prices fluctuate based on supply and demand.