AWS has created multiple EC2 Instance types for various organizational applications.   An EC2 Instance is comparable to a Virtual Server in an on premises data center.   Depending on the use of the server, you will have varying CPU capacities, Memory allocations, number of Network Cards, different network speed allocations, and different type of storage allocated.  An EC2 Instance has the exact same types of different allocations.    An example of this is that a web server will not have the same ratio of CPU or Storage Capacity to network bandwidth that a database server will have.   You can view the standard type of AWS EC2 Instances at the URL:

https://aws.amazon.com/ec2/instance-types

Here you can see the Types of EC2 Instance available to you in the standard offering.   It is important to realize the a Type of Instance does not necessarily correlate to sizing.    Each Instance Type has a multitude of sizes offered.   The Instance types refer to the ratio or balance of server capacity to there intended use.   Note that within each Instance type you have a range of configuration capacity options.

The Instance Names can be broken down as follows:  We will use the example. M5.2xlarge

        –  m – is the instance class

        –  5 – the generation (improvement of class over time by AWS, normally changing with new hardware)

        –  2xlarge – size in the instance class

EC2 Instance Type

        –  General Purpose

   *  Balance between Compute, Memory and networking.

   *  Web servers

   *  Repositories.

                *  T and M Instances Classes

        –  Compute Optimized

   *  Intense computing uses

     *  Batch Processing

     *  Media manipulation

     *  High performance web servers

     *  HPC – High performing Computing

     *  Scientific Modeling

     *  Gaming servers

                *  C Instances Class

        –  Memory Optimized

     *  For processing large data sets in memory

                *  In-memory relation database

                          *  Distributed web cache

                            *  Business Intelligence – Reporting

                            *  Big unstructured data

                            *  R, X, Z Instances Classes

        –  Accelerated Computing

                *  Hardware accelerated comput

                *  Graphics systems

                *  Mathematical calculation system

                *  Data pattern matching

                *  P, G, T, D, F, V Instances Classes

        –  Storage Optimized

                *  Storage related computing – High Reads and Writes.

                *  OLTP systems

                *  Relation Databases

                *  Cache Database

                *  Data Warehouses

                *  Distributed file systems

                *  I and D Instances Classes

        –  HPC Optimized

                *  High Performance Computer offering

                *  Engineering

                *  Weather modeling

                *  molecular modeling

                *  H Instance Class

•