a. Web Hosting: EC2 instances can be used to host websites and web applications. Users can configure and manage the virtual server according to their requirements, including installing necessary software, setting up databases, and scaling resources to handle varying levels of web traffic.
b. Big Data Processing: EC2 instances are often employed for big data processing tasks such as data analytics, data warehousing, and large-scale data processing. EC2 provides the flexibility to deploy and manage instances optimized for handling these compute-intensive workloads.
Where can we find EC2 on the AWS Console? a. Open the AWS Management Console in your web browser.
b. Sign in to your AWS account.
c. In the AWS Management Console dashboard, you can either search for “EC2” in the search bar at the top, or you can navigate to the “Compute” section and select “EC2” from the services list.
T2 Micro and XL are both instance types within the EC2 service, but they differ in terms of their specifications and capabilities:
T2 Micro: T2 instances are “burstable performance instances” designed for workloads that don’t require continuous high CPU performance. T2 Micro is the smallest and most cost-effective T2 instance size. It offers a single virtual CPU (vCPU) and a limited amount of memory, making it suitable for low-traffic applications or development environments with minimal resource requirements.
XL (Extra Large): XL typically refers to an instance type with larger specifications compared to T2 Micro. The “XL” in this context may be associated with different instance families, such as the general-purpose M5 or the memory-optimized R5. These instance types provide higher computational power, more vCPUs, and greater memory capacity, making them suitable for demanding workloads or resource-intensive applications.
In summary, T2 Micro is a smaller, cost-effective instance type suitable for low-resource applications, while XL refers to a larger and more powerful instance type with greater capabilities for resource-intensive workloads.
To explain a “Compute Cycle” to a non-technical friend, you can use an analogy:
Think of a compute cycle as a single task or operation that a computer processor performs. It’s like a cooking recipe. When you cook a meal, you have different steps to follow, such as chopping vegetables, boiling water, and simmering the sauce. Each step takes some time to complete, and when you finish one step, you move on to the next.
Similarly, a compute cycle is like a step in a recipe, but instead of cooking, it’s the process that a computer’s processor goes through to perform tasks. The processor executes instructions and calculations, like adding numbers or processing data. Each compute cycle represents one of these steps, and the processor completes many cycles in a second to perform complex computations or run software.
Just as a recipe can have multiple steps, a computer program or task may require many compute cycles to complete. The speed and efficiency of a computer’s processor in executing these cycles determine how quickly the task is finished.