Our primary use case is for migrating Linux boxes to Windows boxes. We deal mainly with small and medium-sized businesses that are looking to move away from on-prem hardware to the cloud. We are customers and I'm an MSP architect.
MSP Architect at a comms service provider with 11-50 employees
Reliable with good technical support
Pros and Cons
- "The ethernet configuration is stable and the product is reliable."
- "Lacks sufficient tools to help users minimize their costs."
What is our primary use case?
What is most valuable?
The most valuable feature of this product is its reliability. Its ethernet configuration is stable and they provide good technical support.
What needs improvement?
I'd like to see more tools to help our clients minimize their costs. The company could provide tips on savings. A couple of our clients have taken a pay-as-you-go model when they configure and they're paying a lot more money than they need to.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The solution is stable as is the backend infrastructure.
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What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The scalability is good whether you scale horizontally or vertically. A couple of clients scale out horizontally and the load balances help with that.
How are customer service and support?
Customer support is actually quite good. They've been able to fix or guide me on the solution.
How was the initial setup?
I have experience with this product so the initial setup is easy for me. Some small businesses have their IT people, but others don't have the knowledge so I carry out an assessment for them. My medium sized clients have a couple of IT people who maintain the network side of things and the instances or the server aspect. If they have applications, then they have their own application people that take care of the application. Maintenance requires around three to five people.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The cost varies depending on how many instances you have and how long you run it. Our most recent customers were running around four instances, and their bill was between $1,500 to $2,000.
What other advice do I have?
It's important to have somebody familiar with the solution on board, especially if it's an organization that wants to move quickly.
I rate this solution nine out of 10.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Lead Data Engineer at Seven Lakes Enterprises, Inc.
Offers compute services with a stable and maintenance-free structure, but the upgrade process needs improvement
Pros and Cons
- "The most valuable feature of this solution is the ability to have standard operating systems along with the Windows, Linux operating systems, and their maintenance-free structure, which we prefer."
- "One of the challenges is the AMI upgrades."
What is our primary use case?
We are using this solution for relational DB servers, application servers, and IaaS. We are also using it for SMTP and HTTP services, for compute services.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable feature of this solution is the ability to have standard operating systems along with the Windows, Linux operating systems, and their maintenance-free structure, which we prefer.
What needs improvement?
One of the challenges is the AMI upgrades. For example, EC2 is running on a different AMI, and when we are trying to upgrade, it has mandatory manual processes involved. This is a problem for us. This is an area that we are looking forward to being taken care of or augmented.
Also, when we start doing upgrades, we start losing network connectivity.
We have some issues with the cost, as it's expensive.
They don't have much in the way of optimized support or OS-level support. Also, there is not much visibility in terms of the upgrade. This is an issue that we are facing at the moment.
We would like to see it have something quicker. When we reboot the EC2 instance, the time it takes to come up is a little on the higher side. We are not sure if it is better on the reserved instance, but with the on-demand instances, it's not great. There is no easy way that a preliminary support guy can quickly check why the system is down, or whether there is a network issue or not. These are things that are still convoluted and could be simplified.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using this solution for more than eight years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The stability is fine, we don't have any issues.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
This solution is easy to scale, but it is not easy to change the generation or the instance title. If you are in the same generation it's fine, but upgrading older generations to new generations is painful.
We have more than 80 users in our company. Most of the users are using it daily. The Dev tech team uses it daily.
How are customer service and technical support?
We have a premium support license and they are efficient, but we have a few instances where the technical support was not very good. A few cases for support were not good but for the most part, they are efficient.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is simple with a few moderate complexities, but it's ok.
What about the implementation team?
We did not use an integrator or reseller, we managed ourselves.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The costs are quite high. For our usage, the cost is approximately $20,000 to $23,000 per month.
What other advice do I have?
Know your use cases. You have to analyze your load and use case before you select a particular EC2 machine. You also need to look into the availability and the stability of that particular version of EC2 that you are going for.
Mainly Windows is secure, but Linus and others are difficult to secure.
I would rate this solution a seven out ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Private Cloud
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Amazon Web Services (AWS)
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Buyer's Guide
Amazon EC2
February 2025
Learn what your peers think about Amazon EC2. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: February 2025.
832,138 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Director & Chief Executive at The Bank of East Asia, Limited
It's a good solution for web applications, but it's a little expensive
Pros and Cons
- "The setup is straightforward and it takes around an hour."
- "EC2 is a little expensive."
What is our primary use case?
We use EC2 for some web-based applications. We have around 10 users.
What is most valuable?
EC2 is good.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using EC2 for about half a year.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
EC2 is stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
EC2 is scalable.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We previously used on-premise hardware.
How was the initial setup?
The setup is straightforward and it takes around an hour.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
EC2 is a little expensive.
What other advice do I have?
I rate Amazon EC2 seven out of 10.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Amazon Web Services (AWS)
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Manager, Security Operations Centre at Deloitte
Computing service used in a personal capacity that has the ability to auto-scale resources based on requirements
Pros and Cons
- "I like EC2 because of its simple workload and the ability to configure VPCs and security groups."
- "This solution could be improved with better pricing. If you continue using this solution over a long period of time, your costs may accumulate."
What is our primary use case?
I use this solution in my personal capacity for computing capacity. I use the free tier service.
What is most valuable?
I like EC2 because of its simple workload and the ability to configure VPCs and security groups.
What needs improvement?
This solution could be improved with better pricing. If you continue using this solution over a long period of time, your costs may accumulate. I would also like a way to move my on-prem workload into the cloud.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using this solution for one year.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
This is a stable solution.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Yes, this is a scalable solution. You can configure the solution for auto-scaling which scales any available resource that you want.
How are customer service and support?
I have not had any reason to contact tech support.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is very straightforward. It took five minutes for me to set it up.
What about the implementation team?
I completed this myself as I use this solution for personal use.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I use the free tier, although I have paid for some services that are not free. The overall cost of this solution depends on the services you use.
What other advice do I have?
I would recommend Amazon EC2 to other people.
I would rate it an eight out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Amazon Web Services (AWS)
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
VP - Cloud & DevSecOps at LSS
Reliable, customer friendly support, and highly scalable
Pros and Cons
- "The scalability of Amazon EC2 is good. However, the stability can depend on what service I am using."
- "Amazon EC2 could improve by having integration with other cloud systems, such as Azure, and Google Cloud which would be good. Additionally, having integration with on-premise systems would be appreciated."
What is our primary use case?
We use Amazon EC2 for Windows and Linux systems. Additionally, we use it for UAT and load balancing.
What needs improvement?
Amazon EC2 could improve by having integration with other cloud systems, such as Azure, and Google Cloud which would be good. Additionally, having integration with on-premise systems would be appreciated.
Most of the clients are worried about getting completely dependent on a cloud provider. For example, if you develop everything using Amazon AWS services, then you get stuck with them, that's a worry today. There are people who are asking for cloud-agnostic implementation or services.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Amazon EC2 for approximately four years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Amazon EC2 is stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The scalability of Amazon EC2 is good. However, the stability can depend on what service I am using.
How are customer service and support?
The support is very good, they are customer friendly and use case-based experience.
I rate the support from Amazon EC2 a four out of five.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup of Amazon EC2 it's not straightforward. You need an Amazon AWS engineer to use it because there is a steep learning curve. It's not very difficult to find someone with AWS skillsets.
After four years of use if we want to log and create an EC2 instance it is very easy. Once you have a solution architect or you have an Amzon AWS engineer on your team, it's easier to do.
What other advice do I have?
I would recommend this solution to others and Azure. This is a fantastic solution, it provides the basic requirement for any cloud. They make available computing space or a server to use for customers.
I rate Amazon EC2 an eight out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Amazon Web Services (AWS)
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Senior Database Engineer at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
Highly scalable, good performance, and secure
Pros and Cons
- "The best features of Amazon EC2 are its high performance and security."
- "Amazon EC2 could improve its dashboards and UI, they need to be more user-friendly."
What is our primary use case?
Amazon EC2 is used if you are looking for a process serving cloud service.
What is most valuable?
The best features of Amazon EC2 are its high performance and security.
What needs improvement?
Amazon EC2 could improve its dashboards and UI, they need to be more user-friendly.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Amazon EC2 for approximately five years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Amazon EC2 is a stable and reliable
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Amazon EC2 is a highly scalable solution.
We have over 100 users using this solution and we have plans to increase the usage.
How are customer service and support?
The support from Amazon EC2 is good.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup of Amazon EC2 is straightforward. It only took us a few minutes to complete.
What about the implementation team?
We did the implementation ourselves.
We do not need a special team to implement this solution.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Amazon EC2 has a pay-as-you-use cost model.
What other advice do I have?
Amazon EC2 is the right choice for cloud services processing.
I would recommend this solution to others.
I rate Amazon EC2 a nine out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
CTO at Huber
Secure and stable product with great technical support
Pros and Cons
- "EC2 is secure and stable, and we have no complaints about it on AWS."
- "EC2 could be improved with easier migration."
What is our primary use case?
I mainly use EC2 for hosting our application as well as some of the user data caching mechanism and mailing services.
What needs improvement?
EC2 could be improved with easier migration.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using EC2 for around eighteen months.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I'm satisfied with the stability of EC2.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
EC2 is scalable.
How are customer service and support?
Amazon's technical support is great, we have no issues with it.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup wa straightforward and took around two weeks before configuration.
What other advice do I have?
EC2 is secure and stable, and we have no complaints about it on AWS. However, Microsoft is more helpful with our go-to-market strategy, which motivates us to use Azure more than EC2. I would rate EC2 as ten out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Amazon Web Services (AWS)
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Infrastructure Manager/Deployment Manager at Hivedome Consultancy Services
A cloud solution to host a web server with ease of deployment and good documentation
What is our primary use case?
We use the solution to host a web server or a demo server. Also, we use it as a restored target for disaster recovery.
What is most valuable?
The solution has ease of deployment and good documentation.
What needs improvement?
The solution could provide a console view. When booting up the machine, you can't see anything happening until it's booted up. You don't get to see what's happening if it freezes while starting.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Amazon EC2 for seven years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The product is stable.
I rate the solution’s stability a ten out of ten.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The solution’s scalability is excellent.
Two users are using this solution.
I rate the solution’s scalability a ten out of ten.
How are customer service and support?
We contacted technical support for importing an instance but we didn't get a resolution.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We chose Amazon EC2 because of easy management.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is a little complex.
What about the implementation team?
We did the deployment by ourselves with a bit of training. The deployment depends on the project, but it can be done quickly.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
There is no cost involved for EC2, but sometimes you need to pay for products you run within it.
You need to pay additional costs If you're using a lot of outbound Bandwidth. It is difficult to predict the cost, so I suggest setting up account budgets and notifications if you exceed your budget.
What other advice do I have?
Depending upon the use case, it is suitable for disaster recovery. I recommend users set up usage limits or track budgets on-site.
Amazon EC2 has been functional. We repatriate some stuff in-house because of the ongoing costs.
Overall, I rate the solution a nine out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
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Updated: February 2025
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You may simply scale your EC2 instances up or down based on traffic or workload demands with AWS EC2 Auto Scaling. This makes it a very valuable feature because it helps to guarantee top performance and financial effectiveness.