Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud review for Machine Learning Developers
I use it for training machine learning models. I use the Deep Learning AMIs available to spin up Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud instances …
Starting at $0.01 per IP address with a running instance per hour on a pro rata basis
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What is Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2)?
Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) is a web service that provides secure, resizable compute capacity in the cloud. Users can launch instances with a variety of OSs, load them with custom application environments, manage network access permissions, and…
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Popular Features
- Pre-configured templates (17)9.595%
- Dynamic scaling (17)9.393%
- Elastic load balancing (17)9.292%
- Service-level Agreement (SLA) uptime (17)8.686%
Reviewer Pros & Cons
Pricing
Data Transfer
$0.00 - $0.09
Cloud
per GB
On-Demand
$0.0042 - $6.528
Cloud
per Hour
EBS-Optimized Instances
$0.005
Cloud
per IP address with a running instance per hour on a pro rata basis
Entry-level set up fee?
- No setup fee
Offerings
- Free Trial
- Free/Freemium Version
- Premium Consulting/Integration Services
Product Demos
Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) Training @ VICTORYSOST
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What is Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2)?
Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) is a web service that provides secure, resizable compute capacity in the cloud. Users can launch instances with a variety of OSs, load them with custom application environments, manage network access permissions, and run images on multiple systems.
Key Features
Bare metal instances
Amazon EC2 Fleet (fleet management)
Pause and resume instances
GPU compute instances
GPU graphics instances
High I/O instances
Dense HDD storage instances
Optimized CPU configurations
Flexible storage options
Pay-as-you-go pricing
Place instances in multiple locations
Elastic IP addresses
Auto-scale capacity up or down
HPC clusters
Elastic Fabric Adapter
Available on AWS PrivateLink
Amazon Time Sync Service
Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) Technical Details
| Deployment Types | Software as a Service (SaaS), Cloud, or Web-Based |
|---|---|
| Operating Systems | Unspecified |
| Mobile Application | No |
Frequently Asked Questions
Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) is a web service that provides secure, resizable compute capacity in the cloud. Users can launch instances with a variety of OSs, load them with custom application environments, manage network access permissions, and run images on multiple systems.
Reviewers rate Pre-defined machine images highest, with a score of 9.8.
The most common users of Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) are from Enterprises (1,001+ employees).
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Score 8 out of 10
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Verified User
I use it for training machine learning models. I use the Deep Learning AMIs available to spin up Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud instances and then use that to train large models.
I use the GPU-based Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud instances, as for training large models good GPUs with high memory are required. I connect the instance to the S3 bucket where I store that data.
I use the GPU-based Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud instances, as for training large models good GPUs with high memory are required. I connect the instance to the S3 bucket where I store that data.
- Deep Learning AMIs.
- Ubuntu Instances.
- Data Security by hiding Public IPs.
- Support for VPN for data security.
- Always ON, never slows down.
- Documentation
- Tutorials for beginners.
- Simplifying Dashboard.
October 25, 2019
EC2 - Excellent Cloud Computing Service
We use Amazon EC2 across the whole organization. We solve different business problems using EC2 as mentioned below:
1. We host multiple backend and cloud solutions on EC2.
2. When we want to train Machine Learning Models that need heavy computation and GPU power, we go with EC2.
3. Some solutions are not mandatory to keep up all the time. We use cloud formation script which spins up EC2 - host the solution and thrash it down when not needed.
1. We host multiple backend and cloud solutions on EC2.
2. When we want to train Machine Learning Models that need heavy computation and GPU power, we go with EC2.
3. Some solutions are not mandatory to keep up all the time. We use cloud formation script which spins up EC2 - host the solution and thrash it down when not needed.
- EC2 has wide variety of machine configurations. If the intended solutions are memory heavy, CPU heavy, GPU heavy or IO heavy, EC2 will provide proper machine configurations as per the requirements.
- EC2 has lot of Machine Images to setup OS and required softwares. It also allows you to create the image of your own disk. This facilitates user to stop the EC2 instance without loosing the work. It helps to reduce the bill. The image can be attached again to EC2 to start from the same place from where it was left.
- Amazon allows different way to obtain instances like on-demand, spot and reserved. Depending upon the need, one can take wise decision to save cost and address the situation in the best possible way.
- This service is a bit difficult to consume. New users need a big learning curve to use this service effectively.
- UI for EC2 service is a little complex and at many places, it misses detailed explanation.
- Sometimes it takes too long to create images of EC2 instances. This keeps your EC2 up for that extra time. When instances are heavy, it penalizes a lot of money.
EC2 is being used primarily by one major division (department) of our organization but indirectly by the entire organization. The main division that uses it is tasked with continuously developing new tools and technologies for organization-wide use and EC2 allows us to quickly and efficiently obtain and configure the necessary servers for each new project and subproject as they arise, or as the ideas come to us without having to go through the lengthy traditional channels of submitting proposals, and requesting budgeting etc each time we need more server space.
- It's cost-effective because you pay for only what you use, this is imperative in not-for-profit higher ed, and there are also no long term commitments or upfront fees. This is only one of the pricing options available (the one that best serves us) so there is flexibility.
- Which is my next point, the flexibility of EC2 is what sets is apart from anything else. It is designed to not let the technology get in the way of your ideas and work.
- It is VERY quick and easy to get up and running. Someone brand new to EC2 could have this up and running very fast.
- Performance..EC2 is somewhat slow by comparison and is getting worse as faster processors and hard drives come in the to market.
- Reserved instances.. while they eliminate the price-gap, they do nothing about the performance gap.
- Platform Specific Language that is of any AWS product. The more you need to do with your system and the further you go "inside", the further you go from traditionally recognized languages and their operations. There is a learning curve and it's oftentimes necessary to have support.
In our project, we are using Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud as our main application cluster. It provides a virtual instance in which users can configure its CPU, memory, and other crucial settings. It also provides auto-scalability, which is very important during high traffic on your application. With EC2 we quickly set up our application instances for different environments, and we are pretty satisfied with the service.
- It provides you with static IP addresses.
- Auto-scaling feature.
- Easy to configure and set up your instance.
- You can always change the type of your instances (allocation of more or less CPU/memory for your instance).
- Securely log in to your environment with PEM files.
- I think that AWS Console should have a terminal screen through which you can access your EC2 instances easily in the browser.
- Sometimes you cannot have any clue why the instance is auto-scaled, when you may be pretty sure that there is no high traffic in that particular time.
- The ;earning curve is a bit high in order to make your instances fully configured, and the community is still weak.
April 29, 2019
EC2 for scalable web apps
We are a fast growing financial tech startup based in North Carolina. We sell financial products targeted at banks and credit unions. Built on top of the Salesforce platform we've expanded our offerings with more custom solutions. As a result we've developed several apps that are deployed atop the Amazon EC2 cloud. The cloud deployments are used company wide both for internal testing as well as by the clients in our production instances.
- The ability to expand resources for your cloud deployment depending on demand makes it highly appealing.
- The cloud hosting offers excellent backup capabilities so reverting to an earlier version is a breeze.
- Cloud infrastructure avoids the need for us to maintain hardware resources locally. Security and software patching is all handled remotely.
- The whole process of configuration and spinning up instances requires thorough technical knowledge. The learning curve for it seems a bit daunting.
- The training documentation and support is a bit lacking. We tried using Lambda expressions for program flow execution and did not find great resources on that topic.
April 08, 2019
EC2- Computing on demand
Amazon EC2 is the backbone of any cloud deployment for our organization. As one of the first services launched on AWS, it holds a special place in any infrastructure project that we run. The amount of customizability that you have with EC2 is unlike any other AWS service and allows you to find the perfect computing solution for whatever use case you need.
- Customizable computing is here to stay with EC2. From a minimal 2-core machine for a minimal microservice to the biggest 16-core Xeon with Nvidia Quadros for a machine-learning model, compute power can be immediately up or downsized to your current need at any given moment.
- Cost savings with EC2 is incredible. By putting computer hardware in a communal bidding system, you minimize your cost per server with every other company who also wants those resources. If you have time-independent processes that you need to process, you can even bid on leftover server contracts that have gone unfilled for pennies on the dollar.
- EC2 storage options are lengthy, with EBS volumes, ephemeral storage, and multiple options to customize throughput and storage cost for each one.
- The UI of AWS is quite hard to familiarize with, along with the infrastructure setup. It's a conglomeration of hundreds of acronyms specific to AWS that must be understood including their minutiae to effectively run a cloud deployment. While AWS' documentation is extensive, their beginner-focused guides could use work.
- Instances become incredibly hard to manage after a critical mass, forcing companies to create their own management applications to fill the void that AWS leaves. Along with this, AWS' SDKs can be very poorly documented making this task exponentially more difficult.
- If you lose your SSH key that is released with the creation of the instance, you lose complete access to the server. While I understand the reasoning behind this decision, MFA recovery would be a nice touch.
September 04, 2018
Amazon: Big IaaS option for your business
Both our customers and we have a wide range of applications uploaded in Amazon EC2. Since we do not have physical servers, we have EC2 instances in our testing, development, production and administrative departments. Also, we support many clients who prefer to manage their own EC2 instances.
EC2 instances allow us to abstract all the management of servers and concentrate on what really generates value in our business: building solutions for our clients.
- Quick learning curve and ease of acquisition for new learners due to their 12 month free trial.
- Connection to the entire AWS ecosystem, such as RDS service for database management.
- Dynamic scaling of instance resources allows you to achieve the performance you are looking for without having to pay more than necessary.
- Hot swap of volumes and other resources.
- You can't easily know the end of free trial period, which can generate monthly costs for unused services (even so, the support for these isolated cases is very good!)
- The default configuration of resource usage alerts could be better. Even so, there are alternatives to control these cases outside of AWS.
- While you're still learning how to handle instances, one can make some serious mistakes, such as leaving open ports or deleting an instance without realizing it. Again, is not a core AWS responsability but a few alerts could be great (or you can leave infraestructure experts handle all the management).
August 31, 2018
Highly recommend cloud computing instances like EC2
We use it for dev instances, staging instances and production instances for the whole organization. We automatically spin up instances as needed, automatically configure the settings and software we need, and it's ready to go in seconds. Prior to this we used managed hosting which caused too many problems with bad customer support and limited access to the servers preventing us from solving our own problems with bugs and scaling.
- Full control over the software and settings.
- Instant availability of a new server with the power you require.
- Thorough permission support to ensure only those who have the rights to monitor or configure the servers can do so.
- Many world wide locations to make sure it's closer to the country your users are in.
- Huge learning curve. To get a basic instance up with default settings is very easy, but there's hundreds or perhaps thousands of settings without explanations of what they do.
- Multiple ways to do the same thing, like the browser console, the command line, and APIs, means finding answers on how to do something may be provided only in one way and not the way you have to do it.
- Lack of documentation on best practices in many scenarios. AWS assumes you have devops experience and makes it too easy for you to make mistakes and follow bad practices.
April 11, 2018
Amazon's EC2 is where it's at!
Our whole organization uses EC2 in a sense that all of our data and all of our clients' backups are stored there. We can address the problem of availability and scalability, putting both us and our customers at ease. They can know their data is safe and always available to them regardless of conditions
- Scales up and down with ease!
- Cost effective and easy to understand billing/cost analysis
- Many many tools and documentation available for use. Always expanding and changing landscape
- Can be very difficult to get an initial grasp of how things work at EC2 due to proprietary terms and technologies
- The sign-in page has changed a few times, and with its most recent update can be confusing to some
- Billing section can be hard to find at times, but the search function really comes through when looking for features
January 08, 2018
EC2: Power Hosting for DIYers
We are hosting a public-facing web application and some internal workers/APIs on a medium-sized pool of EC2 instances. We use Docker with a container orchestration system to manage these services. By running directly on EC2, we are able to utilize spot pricing which saves us 80-90% on our hosting costs.
- AWS EC2 instances are extremely generic and allow you to build infrastructure that isn't tied to a particular provider because it's essentially just a server.
- AWS EC2 allows you to create images from one server and launch other servers with the same image, making scaling and fault-tolerance much easier.
- AWS EC2 integrates with other AWS services like Cloudwatch to make monitoring performance issues very simple.
- You forsake a lot of the added features and tailored simplicity that comes with cloud services like Elastic Beanstalk.
- Launching, configuring, and maintaining your EC2 instance comes with a fair bit of overhead.
- AWS is not the cheapest option if you are just running generic Linux servers on EC2.
December 19, 2017
Comprehensive offering with amazing tie in with the AWS Ecosystem
We started using Amazon EC2 as a part of a bigger push by our organization to shift our datacenters to Cloud with Amazon being our choice of providers. It is being used by our entire organization, but our team used EC2 to host Neo4J. The EC2 addresses the problem of managed infrastructure. We added additional scripts to create and maintain the backups of Neo4J database using the EC2 snapshot service.
- Great variety, there are different classes of EC2 instances that fit various purposes.
- Robust integration with rest of Amazon ecosystems using Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2)
- Ability to customize the instances at OS level.
- Snapshot backup service. Since the production database with 50GB of data needs to be backed up with minimal downtime, we relied on the EC2 snapshot service for storing backups and it was a breeze. With about a minute downtime every day, we now have tested, reliable backups that would not have been possible otherwise.
- Ability to add different volumes to the EC2 instance. This ties in with the previous point of adding a separate high speed SSD data volume for storing data and backing up that volume on a day to day basis.
- Docker style templates for EC2 instances, where the installation, backup and rest of the scripts come out of the box.
- Ran into a couple of issues while trying to reboot the EC2 instances, doing reboot on the instance through CLI caused data issues on the system. That needs to be ironed out.
- Costs need to be competitive with rest of the market. Found that EC2's are a lot more expensive than its competitors. So if you are tied into the Amazon ecosystem, then EC2 makes sense, but if you are looking for silo EC2 instances, look elsewhere for cost saving.
March 30, 2017
AWS EC2 ROCKS SOCKS
We started off using it for just our web applications. We are currently in the process of moving it to across the entire org (IT to start using it). It addresses all typical problems. Makes everything easy and performant.
- Fast
- Affordable
- Easy to use
- Straight to the point
- A bit of a learning curve at first
- Not much I would change
- More free options :)