EC2 Basics: Your First Step to Building on AWS

Ever wondered how you could launch a website without having to buy a computer or server? Well, that’s what Amazon EC2 does! EC2 (Elastic Compute Cloud) is one of AWS’s most popular services and is used by businesses around the world to run websites, apps, and more.

Today, we’re going to start with that most fundamental of all AWS services—EC2.

What is EC2, Anyway ?

Imagine you want a car to drive around, instead of buying it, you can rent one whenever you need. You select the size that you need, the power, and even the specific type of car if it’s a sports car or an SUV or maybe just a small city car. When you finish with it, you return it back and most importantly: You only pay for the period of time that you used it. EC2 in simple terms works exactly like this but for computers.

Those computers or “instances” as they are well known can be easily customized to what fits your needs for your project whether its is simply running a blog or maybe running an application or even really huge stuff such as an e-commerce giant! And the best part here is: In minutes not months after deciding to get an instance since there is no hardware to buy.

How does it work?

Suppose you want to create a website to share your favorite travel stories: rent an EC2 instance. An EC2 instance is a virtual computer that enables you to host your website and make it available on the internet.

When you create your EC2 instance, you can choose from different operating systems (just like choosing between Windows and macOS on your laptop). The most popular choice is Linux, but if you're comfortable with Windows, that’s available too. You can even choose how much power (CPU), memory (RAM), and storage space you need for your virtual machine—just like customizing the engine, seats, and trunk space of a car!

Why EC2 is Awesome

With EC2 you don’t have to actually buy a computer, or worry about maintaining it. AWS does all the hard work for you behind the scenes. If you need more horsepower you can really easily upgrade your instance, and if you suddenly need less, (your travel video isn’t getting as many views now people are back at work), then scale back and save money. Remember how I said EC2 is like a car? Well with EC2 when your website suddenly gets lots of visitors (for example when 25 Thousand High Quality YouTube Views goes viral) then EC2 will handle that surge in traffic for you automatically. So to continue the bad car metaphor it’s like your little car just turned into a bus!

Example

Imagine you’re running a small online store, and you know that during the holidays, you’re going to get a lot more people visiting your store. With EC2, you have the ability to actually “scale up” your instance when it gets really busy. You can add more memory and cpu power so your extra visitors don’t have any problems using your site. Then once the holidays are over, you can scale it back down and save yourself some money. It’s like hiring on a couple of extra cashiers only when absolutely necessary!

Security: Protecting Your Instance

Now, how do we prevent our EC2 instances from being accessed by unwanted people? It’s the same as if you put a lock in front of your house door. AWS has something called security groups acting like a firewall to your instance, it decides who can come in and who can come out again, just like you decide who holds the key to your home.

So you want visitors to be able to visit your website, but not mess with your server? You can create some rules that will allow in the right kind of internet traffic (ie. people who want to see your website) and keep everything else out.

Bootstrapping: Preparing Your Instance

Imagine you just moved into a new apartment. You would put your furniture inside, install some appliances, and basically make it cozy. Bootstrapping in EC2 is the same thing – it’s doing something on your instance as soon as it starts for the first time. Like installing some software or downloading files from internet.

In AWS this can be done using User Data script. For example you can configure an instance to automatically install web server software so that you don’t have to manually do this after the instance starts. In other words – while drinking coffee someone else is putting your furniture for you!

Choosing the Right Instance Type

AWS offers many different types of EC2 instances, each designed for specific tasks. For beginners, the t2.micro instance is a good starting point. It’s free for the first 750 hours each month, which is enough to run a small website or experiment with AWS without worrying about costs.

But what if your website grows? You can upgrade to a more powerful instance, like upgrading from a bicycle to a motorbike. There are other instance types optimized for specific uses, such as memory-heavy tasks (think of storing large photo galleries) or compute-intensive jobs (like rendering videos). It’s all about picking the right “vehicle” for the job!

Wrapping Up: What’s Next?

The last thing I want to do is overload you with information. I’ve given you just enough to get started and be dangerous. Next time, we’ll dive deeper AWS Concepts.

That’s a really high level introduction to Amazon EC2! You can think of it like renting virtual computers, on demand to host websites, and scale them as needed & you don’t have to worry about the hardware end. You have full root access (control) to your virtual machines – with this comes complete control of operating system (i.e. install anything you want), storage, memory & networking & it’s all pay-as-you-go.