Category: Compute

I almost missed a really important anniversary! Yesterday marked Amazon EC2‘s fourth birthday. Here are some of the ways that EC2 has grown and changed in the last four years: Category 2006 2010 Regions One Four Availability Zones One Ten Availability Zones Instance Types One Nine Pricing Models One Three Storage Ephemeral Storage Ephemeral StorageElastic […]

You can now use the Linux kernel of your choice when you boot up an Amazon EC2 instance. We have created a set of AKIs (Amazon Kernel Images) which contain the PV-Grub loader. This loader simply chain-boots the kernel provided in the associated AMI (Amazon Machine Image). Net-net, your instance ends up running the kernel […]

A number of AWS users have been using Amazon EC2 to solve a variety of computationally intensive problems. Here’s a sampling: Atbrox and Lingit use Elastic MapReduce to build data sets that help individuals with dyslexia to improve their reading and writing skills. Systems integrator Cycle Computing helps Varian to run compute-intensive Monte Carlo simulations. […]

We’ve added two new features to the Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) to make it more powerful and easier to use. Here’s the scoop: IP Address Control – You can now assign the IP address of your choice to each of the EC2 instances that you launch in your Virtual Private Cloud. The address must […]

Many fields in industry and academia are experiencing an exponential growth in data production and throughput, from social graph analysis to video transcoding to high energy physics. Constraints are everywhere when working with very large data sets, and provisioning sufficient storage and compute capacity for these fields is challenging. This is particularly true for biological […]

If you already have some EBS (Elastic Block Store) volumes, stop reading this post now! Instead, open up the AWS Management Console in a fresh browser tab, select the Amazon EC2 tab and click on Volumes (or use this handy shortcut to go directly there). Click on one of your EBS volumes and you’ll see […]

Update 2 (27 Oct 2017): This post is no longer current. I would recommend that you start by reading the Network and Security documentation and read about Web Application Hosting in the AWS Cloud. You should also take a look at the Web Hosting Best Practices white paper. Update 1 (17 June 2010): I’ve changed the […]

NASA Jet Propulsion Lab, NASA’s lead center for robotic exploration of the solar system is doing some pretty extraordinary things with the AWS cloud. I had the opportunity to meet with their CTO to discuss some of the interesting projects they are working on. Like the early explorers of Deep Space, they were also early […]