Item: Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2)
Rating: 9
Author: Verified User

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

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.

Pros and Cons

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.

Return on Investment

At first we spent a little more than we had the previous year on server space because we had over estimated, but we immediately were able to recoup that money with their pay for what you use model.
In the end we are doing so much more than we were 4 years ago because of the hours and hours saved from paperwork and budgeting everytime a new project commences or ends and server needs change.

Alternatives Considered

AWS Lambda and Amazon S3 (Simple Storage Service)

Amazon's been leading the way in the past few years in cloud computing and have easily become a name we can trust. When we looked at options, nothing compared to EC2 when you looked at the scalability and flexibility of the product. For the needs we were trying to meet, these were our top two "must haves" and this product beat out the other contenders for this.

Support Rating

Anything Amazon is always going to get a 10 on support. This is something they have gotten right from the beginning and I hope doesn't change anytime soon.

Key Insights

Do you think Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2)'s feature set?

Yes

Did Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) live up to sales and marketing promises?

Yes

Did implementation of Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) again?

Yes

Other Software Used

Microsoft Power BI, Airtable, Trello, Slack, Asana, Atlassian Confluence, monday.com

Likelihood to Recommend

EC2 is a perfect solution for a team of skilled developers who are familiar with cloud computing, able to make basic translations, and cannot be hassled by the politics/paperwork shuffle of dealing with the ebb and flow of server changes. EC2 would not be a good solution for a very small team with perhaps a single server need or perhaps a larger team with multiple server needs but without technical personnel.

Servers when you need them, how you need them...take your time back- thank you EC2!

Overall Satisfaction with Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2)