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Ask HN: Can someone explain Amazon's Cloud Computing (EC2) to me?

• byoung2 15y ago
  Having a dedicated server is like buying a vacation house. You have a predictable cost, but also a fixed capacity. If the house sleeps 10, but your family is only 4, you're wasting money. If you have 10 unexpected guests one year, some people may have to sleep outside. Also, for 50 weeks a year when you are not on vacation, it sits empty, but you still pay for it. Amazon EC2 is like getting a room at a hotel. It may cost more per night, but you can also only book it when you need it. Additionally, when you have more people than expected, you can book more rooms. Renting 10 rooms for a week is cheaper than buying a house. If you know in advance what your needs are, and they are consistent from month to month, get a dedicated server. If you have have unpredictable needs, EC2 is the way to go.
  • Turing_Machine 15y ago
    Nice analogy. It's also possible to combine the two approaches and use a dedicated server for routine traffic, while also having an AMI (Amazon Machine Image) preconfigured with your server environment, ready to spin up when you get a sudden traffic spike or your regular server goes down. That'd be like owning the vacation house but also having a deal with a local hotel owner to handle the overflow when it's your turn to host the family reunion.
    • sixQuarks 15y ago
      Is that difficult to setup? I like having the ability to edit my HTML files and FTP it to my server. Is it easy to do this with the Amazon Machine image?
      • Turing_Machine 15y ago
        An AMI is basically a Linux (or Windows, if you must) virtual machine. You can pick a kernel version, etc. from many available preconfigured AMIs (both from Amazon and from third parties), install whatever other software you want, then save it as your own custom AMI. You do have to pay some (minor) storage charges even when it's not running. You also need to be comfortable with running all aspects of your server (upgrades, software installation, and so on). It's more demanding than just using a shared account that someone else has set up and administers.
  • jnorthrop 15y ago
    That's a great analogy but I'd like to add another variable to the mix. With a dedicated server you know where your data is stored (e.g. a data center in Denver, CO, or Dayton, OH) but that isn't the case with EC2. Their servers are distributed all over the world. If you business has any sort of sensitivity to data-origin type legal consideration you're better off with a dedicated server. The country of origin for your data isn't easily controlled with a cloud type service.
    • byoung2 15y ago
      With a dedicated server you know where your data is stored (e.g. a data center in Denver, CO, or Dayton, OH) but that isn't the case with EC2 With EC2, you can select a region, and you can be assured that the server you get will be in one of a handful of datacenters in that city. There are 4 availability zones in the US-East region, for example, which means that you can be assured that your data is in northern Virginia.
• brudgers 15y ago
  EC2 is primarily geared toward providing variable computational capacity. One can use the API to programmaticly trigger the allocation or deallocation of resources in a cost effective manner. In other words when computational needs are low, fewer resources can be allocated and costs can be lowered with additional capacity brought online only as needed - elastic resources to meet elastic demand.