Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud

<p>Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) is a part of <a href="/facts/Amazon_(company)/YzUTUVE8">Amazon</a>'s <a href="/facts/Cloud-computing/guhg0FGV">cloud-computing</a> platform, <a href="/facts/Amazon_Web_Services/UFVN2796">Amazon Web Services</a> (AWS), that allows users to rent <a href="/facts/Virtual_computer/BLevU3sx">virtual computers</a> on which to run their own computer applications. EC2 encourages scalable deployment of applications by providing a <a href="/facts/Web_service/qxrwqB3D">web service</a> through which a user can boot an <a href="/facts/Amazon_Machine_Image/tVJzJk9R">Amazon Machine Image</a> (AMI) to configure a <a href="/facts/Virtual_Machine/BLevU3sx">virtual machine</a>, which Amazon calls an "instance", containing any software desired. A user can create, launch, and terminate <a href="/facts/Server_(computing)/dEaYFD7r">server</a>-instances as needed, paying by the second for active servers – hence the term "elastic". EC2 provides users with control over the geographical location of instances that allows for <a href="/facts/Network_latency/JK7jmoJu">latency</a> optimization and high levels of <a href="/facts/Redundancy_(engineering)/odqzTmIo">redundancy</a>. In November 2010, Amazon switched its own retail website platform to EC2 and AWS.
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Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud open-in-new

Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud