

Ask HN:  Can someone explain Amazon's Cloud Computing (EC2) to me?  - sixQuarks

I'm a non-technical solo-entreprenuer who has been running my own sites for years.  I'm hosting my sites on dedicated servers and have had no problems even with high traffic sites.<p>Why should I use Amazon's cloud services? Could I just launch a site and host it on their servers?  Is it easy to use?  
 I'm kind of confused as to how it works.<p>Sorry for sounding so ignorant, I'm just trying to figure out how I can use it.
======
byoung2
Having a dedicated server is like buying a vacation house. You have a
predictable cost, but also a fixed capacity. If the house sleeps 10, but your
family is only 4, you're wasting money. If you have 10 unexpected guests one
year, some people may have to sleep outside. Also, for 50 weeks a year when
you are not on vacation, it sits empty, but you still pay for it.

Amazon EC2 is like getting a room at a hotel. It may cost more per night, but
you can also only book it when you need it. Additionally, when you have more
people than expected, you can book more rooms. Renting 10 rooms for a week is
cheaper than buying a house.

If you know in advance what your needs are, and they are consistent from month
to month, get a dedicated server. If you have have unpredictable needs, EC2 is
the way to go.

~~~
jnorthrop
That's a great analogy but I'd like to add another variable to the mix. With a
dedicated server you know where your data is stored (e.g. a data center in
Denver, CO, or Dayton, OH) but that isn't the case with EC2. Their servers are
distributed all over the world.

If you business has any sort of sensitivity to data-origin type legal
consideration you're better off with a dedicated server. The country of origin
for your data isn't easily controlled with a cloud type service.

~~~
byoung2
_With a dedicated server you know where your data is stored (e.g. a data
center in Denver, CO, or Dayton, OH) but that isn't the case with EC2_

With EC2, you can select a region, and you can be assured that the server you
get will be in one of a handful of datacenters in that city. There are 4
availability zones in the US-East region, for example, which means that you
can be assured that your data is in northern Virginia.

------
brudgers
EC2 is primarily geared toward providing variable computational capacity.

One can use the API to programmaticly trigger the allocation or deallocation
of resources in a cost effective manner. In other words when computational
needs are low, fewer resources can be allocated and costs can be lowered with
additional capacity brought online only as needed - elastic resources to meet
elastic demand.

