AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner - Domain 3: Cloud Technology and Services - Compute

Amazon EC2 (Elastic Compute Cloud)

On-demand virtual servers in the cloud; pay only while instance is running

EC2 - General Purpose

Balanced compute, memory, and networking; ideal for web servers, code repositories, and diverse workloads

EC2 - Compute Optimized

Ideal for compute-intensive tasks: gaming servers, HPC, ML, scientific modeling

EC2 - Memory Optimized

Fast performance for memory-heavy workloads: large dataset processing, data analytics, databases

EC2 - Accelerated Computing

Uses hardware accelerators (GPUs) for floating-point calculations, graphics processing, and ML

EC2 - Storage Optimized

High performance for locally stored data; large databases, data warehousing, I/O-intensive apps˜

AMI (Amazon Machine Image)

Pre-built virtual machine image containing OS, storage setup, architecture, and permissions; used to launch EC2 instances consistently

EC2 Pricing - On-Demand

Pay by the hour or second with no commitments; most flexible but most expensive

EC2 Pricing - Reserved Instances

Up to 75% savings with 1-year or 3-year commitment; best for predictable workloads

EC2 Pricing - Spot Instances

Up to 90% off On-Demand; uses spare capacity; can be interrupted; best for flexible/stateless workloads

EC2 Pricing - Savings Plans

Up to 72% savings with commitment to consistent usage level for 1 or 3 years; flexible across instance types

EC2 Pricing - Dedicated Hosts

Entire physical server reserved for your exclusive use; required for compliance or bring-your-own-license scenarios

EC2 Pricing - Dedicated Instances

Instances on hardware dedicated solely to your account; isolation from other customers

EC2 Pricing - On-Demand Capacity Reservations

Reserve compute capacity in a specific AZ for any duration; no billing discount

Convertible Reserved Instances

Type of Reserved Instance that allows you to change the instance family, OS, or tenancy; provides flexibility but slightly lower discount

Amazon EC2 Auto Scaling

Automatically adjusts the number of EC2 instances based on demand; supports dynamic and predictive scaling

Auto Scaling Group - Minimum Capacity

Minimum number of EC2 instances that must always be running

Auto Scaling Group - Desired Capacity

Ideal number of instances for current workload

Auto Scaling Group - Maximum Capacity

Upper limit of instances to prevent over-scaling and control costs

Elastic Load Balancing (ELB)

Automatically distributes incoming traffic across multiple targets; scales with traffic; decouples front-end and back-end

ELB Routing Methods

Round Robin, Least Connections, IP Hash, Least Response Time

AWS Lambda

Serverless compute service; runs code in response to events; no server management; charged per millisecond of compute time and per request

AWS Elastic Beanstalk

Fully managed service for deploying and scaling web applications; handles capacity, load balancing, auto scaling, and health monitoring

AWS Batch

Fully managed service for running large-scale batch computing workloads; auto-schedules and scales compute resources

Amazon Lightsail

Simplified cloud service with VPS, storage, databases, and networking at a predictable monthly price; ideal for small businesses and beginners

AWS Outposts

Extends AWS infrastructure and services to on-premises data centers; supports hybrid cloud; good for low-latency and regulatory requirements

Amazon ECS (Elastic Container Service)

Scalable container orchestration service for running Docker containers on AWS

Amazon EKS (Elastic Kubernetes Service)

Fully managed Kubernetes service on AWS

AWS Fargate

Serverless compute engine for containers; works with ECS and EKS; no need to provision or manage EC2 instances

Amazon ECR (Elastic Container Registry)

Managed service to store, manage, and deploy container images; supports OCI standards

AWS AppStream 2.0

Fully managed application streaming service; streams desktop apps to any compatible device

Amazon WorkSpaces

Fully managed cloud-based virtual desktop service (VDI)

Amazon IoT Core

Managed cloud service to securely connect physcial devices with cloud applications