What Is Amazon EC2? Elastic Compute Cloud Explained for Beginners

Whenever you work in a production environment as a server administrator or system administrator, you work with servers. Traditionally, companies would buy a physical server from companies such as HP, Dell, IBM, or another server manufacturer.

On that physical server, they would install an operating system. After installing the operating system, they would install an application or configure a particular server role.

How Traditional Servers Were Used

For example, suppose you have a Windows operating system. If you install an antivirus application on it, that machine can become an antivirus server. If you install an FTP role, it becomes an FTP server, and if you install a DNS role, it becomes a DNS server.

Similarly, if you have a Linux server and install Apache, it becomes a web server. If you have a Windows Server and install IIS, that system can also become a web server.

In some cases, instead of installing an application, a company may need a database server. They can install Oracle Database, Microsoft SQL Server, MySQL, or another database.

This concept has existed in the industry for a long time. Today, we can call this the traditional server approach.

Earlier, you might have seen server configurations such as 16 GB RAM with a 4-core CPU or perhaps 32 GB RAM with a 4-core CPU.

But over time, companies started purchasing much more powerful servers. For example, a server could have 256 GB RAM and 32 CPU cores.

Instead of installing one normal Windows or Linux operating system directly and using that powerful hardware for only one workload, companies started using another technology.

That technology is virtualization.

This is where the concept of virtualization becomes very important. Instead of installing a normal Windows or Linux operating system directly on powerful server hardware, you can install something called a hypervisor.

What Is a Hypervisor?

A hypervisor is designed specifically for virtualization. If you install Windows or Linux directly on hardware, you normally use the operating system to run applications, services, or databases.

A hypervisor works differently. Its main purpose is to allow you to create virtual machines, also called virtual servers, on the physical hardware.

Suppose you have one powerful physical server. After installing a hypervisor on that server, you can create multiple virtual machines. One virtual machine could run Windows Server 2016, another could run Windows Server 2019, and another could run Red Hat Linux.

Different virtual machines can therefore run different operating systems on the same physical hardware. Once you have different operating systems, you can run different applications and databases inside those virtual machines.

This is the concept of server virtualization.

Virtual machines use the RAM and CPU resources of the main physical server. For example, one virtual machine may require 16 GB RAM, while a database server may require 64 GB RAM. Another virtual machine may require only 8 GB RAM.

The same concept applies to CPU. One virtual machine may require four CPU cores, another may require eight CPU cores, and another may require four cores.

With virtualization, you can therefore provide different RAM and CPU configurations to different virtual machines according to their requirements.

Many hypervisors are available in the industry.

VMware ESXi and vSphere

One very well-known hypervisor is VMware ESXi. VMware is the company name, while vSphere is the product.

When you use VMware vSphere, ESXi is the hypervisor that is installed on the server hardware. After installing the hypervisor, you can create multiple virtual machines.

Microsoft Hyper-V and Other Hypervisors

Microsoft also provides a hypervisor called Hyper-V. You may also come across technologies such as Citrix hypervisors, Linux KVM, and Oracle VirtualBox.

Different environments can use different virtualization technologies depending on their requirements.

At this point, you may wonder why virtualization is so important when the main topic is Amazon EC2. The reason is simple: understanding virtualization makes the concept of EC2 much easier to understand.

Virtual machines created through virtualization are the key concept to understand before learning how Amazon EC2 works.

When you create a virtual server in the AWS Cloud, AWS calls that server an EC2 instance.

So when you come across the term “Create an EC2 instance”, do not get confused by the terminology. Conceptually, you are working with a virtual server in the AWS Cloud.

This is why it is important to first understand physical servers, virtualization, hypervisors, and virtual machines before moving directly into Amazon EC2.

Once that background is clear, EC2 becomes much easier to understand.

EC2 stands for Elastic Compute Cloud.

Let us understand these three words separately.

What Does “Elastic” Mean in EC2?

Elastic basically represents flexibility. Suppose you need a server with a certain amount of memory. Your requirement could be different depending on your workload.

You may need a small amount of RAM, a much larger amount of RAM, or a powerful server configuration. Cloud computing gives you flexibility in selecting computing resources according to your requirement.

That flexibility is why we use the word elastic.

What Does “Compute” Mean in EC2?

Think about your mobile phone. If somebody asks, “What is the compute power of your mobile?” you may talk about its RAM and CPU.

The same applies to your desktop computer. You might say, “My desktop has 8 GB RAM and a dual-core processor.”

RAM and CPU are part of the computing power of a machine. So when we talk about compute in EC2, we are basically talking about the computing resources that the server requires.

Why Is It Called “Cloud”?

Amazon operates large-scale infrastructure in different parts of the world. When you access the AWS Management Console, you can select different geographical locations or AWS Regions.

For example, you may work with locations such as Mumbai, Singapore, Hong Kong, Seoul, and other available locations.

You select the location where you want to work and then use AWS services from that environment. One of those services is Amazon EC2 — Elastic Compute Cloud.

This is one of the most important concepts to remember.

An EC2 instance is basically a virtual server running in the AWS Cloud.

AWS uses the term instance for these virtual servers. So whenever you hear terms such as EC2 instance, EC2 server, or AWS virtual server, they are referring to the server you are using through Amazon EC2.

At the conceptual level, EC2 instance = virtual server in AWS Cloud.

Once you understand this, the basic idea of Amazon EC2 becomes very simple.

To understand how Amazon EC2 works, it helps to look at the process step by step. A cloud provider has powerful physical hardware containing a large amount of memory and CPU resources.

Virtualization technology allows multiple virtual machines to run using that infrastructure.

When you go to the AWS Management Console, select your desired AWS Region, and create an EC2 server, you are getting access to a virtual server from AWS infrastructure.

At the backend, the concept is simple: there is physical computing infrastructure, virtualization technology is used, and virtual servers are created.

When you use one of those virtual servers through Amazon EC2, AWS calls it an EC2 instance.

You can work with different operating systems when using virtual servers. For example, you may work with a Windows server or a Linux server.

Connecting to Windows Through RDP

If you create a Windows server, you can remotely access that server through RDP. RDP allows you to connect to and work with the remote Windows machine.

Connecting to Linux Through SSH

If you create a Linux server, you can remotely access that server using SSH.

Once an EC2 server is available, you can remotely connect to it and work with it according to its operating system.

Different cloud providers may use different names for similar concepts.

In Microsoft Azure, virtual servers are commonly called Azure Virtual Machines or Azure VMs. Amazon uses the name EC2 instance.

The terminology is different, but the basic concept is the virtual machine or virtual server running in the cloud.

That is why learning the basic virtualization concept is more important than simply memorizing the name EC2.

The most important point to remember about Amazon EC2 is this:

Amazon EC2 is a service through which you work with virtual servers, called EC2 instances, in the AWS Cloud.

EC2 stands for Elastic Compute Cloud. Elastic represents flexibility, Compute represents computing resources such as RAM and CPU, and Cloud means you are accessing these resources through Amazon's cloud infrastructure.

Rather than simply giving you a definition of EC2, it is more useful to understand why EC2 exists, what virtualization is, what a hypervisor does, what a virtual machine is, and how all of these concepts are connected.

Once this background is clear, the term EC2 becomes much easier to understand.

If you like this way of understanding concepts from the basics, you can continue learning through Attari Classes AWS Cloud with GenAI Training.

At Attari Classes, we focus on hands-on practical learning. You can learn through instructor-led training or through recorded learning based on your requirements.

During the training, we perform practicals and explain the concepts so that you understand what is happening instead of simply memorizing steps.

Explore full course details here: AWS Cloud with GenAI Training at Attari Classes

What is Amazon EC2?

Amazon EC2 stands for Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud. In simple terms, it allows you to work with virtual servers in the AWS Cloud. These virtual servers are called EC2 instances.

What does EC2 stand for?

EC2 stands for Elastic Compute Cloud.

What is an EC2 instance?

An EC2 instance is basically a virtual server running in the AWS Cloud.

Is an EC2 instance a virtual machine?

Conceptually, yes. In this blog, EC2 is explained from the virtualization point of view: a virtual machine or virtual server running through AWS is called an EC2 instance.

Why is Amazon EC2 called Elastic Compute Cloud?

“Elastic” represents flexibility, “Compute” refers to computing resources such as RAM and CPU, and “Cloud” refers to using those resources through Amazon's cloud infrastructure.

What is virtualization in relation to EC2?

Virtualization allows powerful physical server hardware to run multiple virtual machines. Understanding virtualization makes it easier to understand the basic concept behind cloud virtual servers such as EC2 instances.

What is a hypervisor?

A hypervisor is software designed for virtualization. It allows multiple virtual machines with different operating systems and resource configurations to run on server hardware.

How do I connect to Windows and Linux EC2 servers?

A Windows server can be remotely accessed through RDP, while a Linux server can be remotely accessed using SSH.