AWS Compute

Amazon EC2

Resizable virtual servers (instances) in the cloud, with a wide choice of CPU, memory, storage and networking.

What is Amazon EC2?

EC2 gives you virtual servers (instances) that you start in minutes and pay for by the second or hour. You choose the operating system (Linux or Windows), the instance family (general purpose, compute, memory or GPU optimised) and attach storage, networking and security groups. Instances can be stopped, resized or replaced at any time.

Key features

  • Hundreds of instance types, including Graviton (ARM) and GPU
  • On-Demand, Savings Plans, Reserved and Spot pricing
  • Security groups and key pairs for access control
  • Auto Scaling groups and load balancers for high availability
  • Snapshots and AMIs for backups and repeatable builds

What it is used for

  • Hosting web applications and APIs
  • Running business software that needs a full server
  • High-performance or GPU workloads

When to use it

  • You need full control of the server and operating system
  • Running software that is not containerised
  • Steady workloads that run all day

When something else fits better

  • Small event-driven jobs (Lambda is simpler)
  • You do not want to patch and maintain servers

How pricing works

Billed per second or hour for the running instance, plus storage (EBS), public IPv4 addresses and data transfer out. Savings Plans or Reserved Instances lower the price for steady workloads; Spot is cheapest for interruptible jobs. Prices change and differ by region; we confirm current costs for your setup before you commit.

Equivalent on Google Cloud

The closest Google Cloud service is Compute Engine: virtual machines on Google's infrastructure, from small shared-core VMs to large GPU machines.

How DomainHostly helps with Amazon EC2

  • Plan: choose the right setup, size and region for your workload and budget.
  • Set up securely: configure Amazon EC2 with least-privilege access, encryption and backups where they apply.
  • Migrate: move from shared hosting, your own servers or the other cloud with minimal downtime.
  • Run and optimise: monitoring, updates and regular cost reviews so you only pay for what you use.

Compute: Virtual machines and servers to run your applications, from a single small server to large fleets.

What to consider: Compute

  • Right-size: start with the smallest machine that meets your load and resize after watching real usage.
  • Use a load balancer and at least two servers in different zones for anything customers depend on.
  • Commit (Savings Plans / committed-use discounts) only for capacity you run all month; use spot or preemptible capacity for interruptible jobs.

Related services: Compute