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Compute

Compute for any workload

Instances, containers, and serverless computing

Why AWS Compute?

Millions of organizations run diverse workloads on the AWS compute platform. As the longest-running Gartner Magic Quadrant Leader for Cloud Infrastructure and Platform Services, AWS has been recognized for 12 consecutive years, and is helping organizations like Lyft, Netflix, Coca-Cola, and Moderna lower infrastructure costs and accelerate innovation on the world's most reliable, secure, and capable cloud.

Benefits of AWS Compute

Right compute for your workloads

AWS offers the broadest and deepest functionality for compute. Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) offers granular control for managing your infrastructure with the choice of processors, storage, and networking. AWS container services offer the best choice and flexibility of services to run your containers. AWS Lambda enables you to run code in response to events from more than 150 natively integrated AWS and software as a service (SaaS) sources.

From idea to market, faster

AWS provides multiple ways to build, deploy, and get to market quickly on the latest technology. The AWS Nitro System, exclusive to AWS, enables us to rapidly innovate, which means you’re always building on the latest technologies. Get started quickly with Amazon Lightsail, a virtual private server for a low, predictable price, and serverless computing with AWS Lambda.

Security, built in

AWS offers significantly more security, compliance, and governance services, and key features than the next largest cloud provider. With the AWS Nitro System, security is built in at the chip level to continuously monitor, protect, and verify the instance hardware and minimize potential attack surfaces. AWS also supports more security standards and certifications than any other cloud provider, including PCI-DSS, HIPAA/HITECH, FedRAMP, GDPR, FIPS 140-2, and NIST800-171.

Flexibility to optimize costs

With AWS compute you pay only for the instance or resource you need, for as long as you use it, without requiring long-term contracts or complex licensing. We offer automated recommendations to help you improve price performance as well as tools and innovative pricing models to further optimize costs. With EC2 Spot Instances you can save up to 90 percent over on-demand pricing for instances, or with Savings Plans you can save up to 72 percent across instances, containers, and serverless on a single bill.

Compute where you need it

AWS is the only cloud provider that distributes a consistent set of services from the cloud, to your data center, to the edge. AWS Outposts extends AWS infrastructure, services, APIs, and tools to any facility. Amazon Elastic Container Service (ECS) Anywhere and Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service (EKS) Anywhere let you run containers on premises using the same APIs and cluster management that you use in the cloud. AWS Wavelength delivers ultra-low latency for 5G-enabled applications through telecommunications companies around the world.

AWS Compute

750+

instances for virtually every business need

80%

of all containerized applications running in the cloud run on AWS

Guidebook: Containers and Kubernetes on AWS

84%

of all Kubernetes workloads in the cloud run on AWS

Guidebook: Containers and Kubernetes on AWS

108

Availability Zones that are multiple, physically separated, and isolated

Longest-running Magic Quadrant Leader for SCPS

Gartner has recognized AWS as a Magic Quadrant Leader for Strategic Cloud Platform Services for the 13th straight year.
AWS placed highest in the Ability to Execute axis of measurement among the eight vendors named in the report.

Read the Gartner Report

See why Gartner named AWS a SCPS Leader again

AWS compute services

Category

Service description

AWS service

Instances (virtual machines)

Easy-to-use service for deploying and scaling web applications and services

Secure and resizable compute capacity (virtual servers) in the cloud

Run fault-tolerant workloads for up to 90% off

Automatically add or remove compute capacity to meet changes in demand

Easy-to-use cloud platform that offers you everything you need to build an application or website

Fully managed batch processing at any scale

Containers

Highly secure, reliable, and scalable way to run containers

Run containers on customer-managed infrastructure

Easily store, manage, and deploy container images

Fully managed Kubernetes service

EKS

Create and operate Kubernetes clusters on your own infrastructure

Serverless compute for containers

Build and run containerized applications on a fully managed service

Serverless

Run code without thinking about servers. Pay only for the compute time you consume

Edge and hybrid

Run AWS infrastructure and services on premises for a truly consistent hybrid experience

Outposts

Collect and process data in rugged or disconnected edge environments

Snowball Edge

Deliver ultra-low latency application for 5G devices

Wavelength

Preferred service for all vSphere workloads to rapidly extend and migrate to the cloud

VMWare

Run latency sensitive applications closer to end-users

Local Zones

Cost and capacity management

Flexible pricing model that provides savings of up to 72% on AWS compute usage

Savings Plan

Recommends optimal AWS compute resources for your workloads to reduce costs and improve performance

Build and maintain secure Linux or Windows Server images

Automatically distribute incoming application traffic across multiple targets

AWS Compute services

Category	Service description	AWS service
Instances (Virtual machines)	Secure and resizable compute capacity (virtual servers) in the cloud	Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2)
	Run fault-tolerant workload for up to 90% off	Amazon EC2 Spot Instances
	Automatically add or remove compute capacity to meet changes in demand	Amazon EC2 Autoscaling
	Easy-to-use cloud platform that offers you everything you need to build an application or website	Amazon Lightsail
	Fully managed batch processing at any scale	AWS Batch
Containers	Highly secure, reliable, and scalable way to run containers	Amazon Elastic Container Service (ECS)
	Run containers on customer-managed infrastructure	Amazon ECS Anywhere
	Easily store, manage, and deploy container images	Amazon Elastic Container Registry (ECR)
	Fully managed Kubernetes service	Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service (EKS)
	Create and operate Kubernetes clusters on your own infrastructure	Amazon EKS Anywhere
	Serverless compute for containers	AWS Fargate
	Build and run containerized applications on a fully managed service	AWS App Runner
Serverless	Run code without thinking about servers. Pay only for the compute time you consume	AWS Lambda
Edge and hybrid	Run AWS infrastructure and services on premises for a truly consistent hybrid experience	AWS Outposts
	Physical edge computing and storage devices for rugged or disconnected environments	AWS Snow Family
	Delivery ultra-low latency application for 5G devices	AWS Wavelength
	Preferred service for all vSphere workloads to rapidly extend and migrate to the cloud.	VMware Cloud on AWS
	Run latency sensitive applications closer to end-users	AWS Local Zones
Cost and capacity management	Flexible pricing model that provides savings of up to 72% on AWS compute usage	AWS Savings Plan
	Recommends optimal AWS Compute resources for your workloads to reduce costs and improve performance	AWS Compute Optimizer
	Easy-to-use service for deploying and scaling web applications and services	AWS Elastic Beanstalk
	Build and maintain secure Linux or Windows Server images	EC2 Image Builder
	Automatically distribute incoming application traffic across multiple targets	Elastic Load Balancing (ELB)

The AWS Nitro System

Regardless if you are migrating apps from on premises or building them natively in the cloud, you can benefit from Amazon EC2 instances built on the AWS Nitro System. The AWS Nitro System enables AWS to innovate faster, further reducing cost for our customers, and deliver added benefits like increased security and new instance types. AWS has completely re-imagined our virtualization infrastructure. Traditionally, hypervisors protect the physical hardware and BIOS, virtualize the CPU, storage, and networking, and provide a rich set of management capabilities. With the Nitro System, we are able to break apart those functions, offload them to dedicated hardware and software, and reduce our costs by delivering all of the resources of a server to customers.

The Nitro System is comprised of three main parts: The Nitro Cards are a family of cards that offloads and accelerates I/O for functions including Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (VPC), Amazon Elastic Block Store (EBS), and Amazon EC2 instance storage, ultimately increasing overall system performance. The Nitro Security Chip enables the most secure cloud platform with a minimized attack surface as virtualization and security functions are offloaded to dedicated hardware and software. Additionally, a locked-down security model prohibits all administrative access, including those of Amazon employees, eliminating the possibility of human error and tampering. The Nitro Hypervisor is a lightweight hypervisor that manages memory and CPU allocation and delivers performance that is indistinguishable from bare metal.

Customers

Expedia
Expedia Group is all in on AWS, with plans to migrate 80 percent of its mission-critical apps from its on-premises data centers to the cloud in the next two to three years. By using AWS, Expedia Group has become more resilient. Expedia Group’s developers have been able to innovate faster while saving the company millions of dollars.

Read the customer story »
Lyft
Lyft uses AWS to move faster as a company and manage its exponential growth, leveraging AWS products to support more than 100 microservices that enhance every element of its customers’ experience.
Moderna
"With AWS, our researchers have the ability to quickly design and execute research experiments and rapidly uncover new insights to get potentially life-saving treatments into production faster... AWS's breadth and depth of services are supporting our mission to create a new generation of medicines for patients and are instrumental in our quest to develop a vaccine for COVID-19 and other life-threatening diseases."

Stéphane Bancel

Moderna, CEO
iRobot
The AWS serverless architecture and the ease of use of the AWS services inside it free up developer time to produce business value.
Redfin
By using AWS, Redfin can innovate quickly and cost effectively with a small IT staff while managing billions of property records.
Volkswagen
"Management was easy—it was very simple to upload a machine to the platform and simply adjust sizing according to need afterwards"

Sadao Matsuda
SAP IT Manager, VWCO

Easy to migrate and build apps

AWS provides multiple ways to get you started quickly and easily. Amazon Lightsail offers a simple cloud platform at a low, predictable price. AWS Amplify is a set of tools and services to help front-end web and mobile developers build scalable full stack applications. The AWS Marketplace is a digital catalog with thousands of software listings from independent software vendors that make it easy to find, test, buy, and deploy software that runs on AWS. There are migration tools as well as AWS Managed Services, AWS Professional Services, AWS Training and Certification, and AWS Support to assist along the way. We have the largest and most vibrant partner community including system integrators, ISVs, and SaaS partners.