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Getting Started with AWS EC2

Welcome to AWS EC2​

Amazon EC2 (Elastic Compute Cloud) gives you resizable virtual servers — called instances — in the AWS cloud. You choose the operating system, CPU, memory, and storage, then deploy your application as if it were a physical machine you own — except it provisions in under a minute.

EC2 is the backbone of cloud deployment. Understanding it unlocks the rest of AWS.

Why EC2?​

When you outgrow shared hosting or your local machine can't handle production traffic, EC2 is the go-to solution. You get full control over the server without buying physical hardware.

Key benefits:

  • Scalability — scale up or out in minutes based on traffic
  • Flexibility — choose any OS, instance type, and region
  • Control — root access to configure your server exactly as needed
  • Pay-as-you-go — only pay for what you use

What You'll Learn​

  • Core concepts — instances, AMIs, regions, and availability zones
  • Launching an instance — choosing the right type and OS
  • Security groups — controlling inbound and outbound traffic (firewall rules)
  • SSH access — connecting to your server securely with key pairs
  • Deploying apps — installing dependencies and running your app on EC2
  • Elastic IP & domains — giving your instance a permanent public address

Prerequisites​

  • An AWS account — sign up here (free tier available)
  • Basic terminal / SSH knowledge
  • Understanding of how web servers work