Automation has improved proactive monitoring and currently supports efficient cloud operations
What is our primary use case?
In my day-to-day work, the main use cases for Amazon Linux involve a wide variety of tasks with a common theme of optimization for Amazon Cloud. Since recently updating my project, I have been using it for automation to monitor CPU utilizations and hosting backend services including REST APIs and web applications on EC2 instances, running production microservices that integrate with services including Amazon ECS and AWS Lambda, and as the defaulting operating system for EC2 instances in a SaaS platform. Additionally, I use Amazon Linux as base images for Dockerfile, node groups for Amazon EKS Kubernetes clusters, and powering CI/CD pipelines acting as Jenkins agents or building servers, using it with infrastructure as code to spin up consistent environments for development, staging, and production.
The most valuable use case involving my work is the scripting that runs automatically via cron, which is a time-based scheduler on Amazon Linux EC2 instances. The script accomplishes mainly two groups: resource dashboarding and proactive monitoring. In resource dashboarding, I utilize the command line interface, specifically AWS CLI, to list all running resources including EC2 instances, S3 buckets, Lambda functions, and configurations to implement in the daily dashboard sent to management. Additionally, I check logs and help prevent unexpected storage issues, and these are the activities I have been using in my daily work.
In my organization, Amazon Linux is deployed using a multi-cloud hybrid approach, supporting all four environments we have mentioned. Public cloud is the most common deployment, where I use Amazon Linux directly on Amazon EC2 to scale from small web servers to massive machine learning clusters. I also deploy it on private premises for added security.
I primarily use AWS for my Amazon Linux deployments.
What is most valuable?
In my experience, the best features Amazon Linux offers are the resource dashboarding and proactive monitoring systems that I have been utilizing in day-to-day work. Most cases are centered around using a Linux base image for containerizing applications, particularly in production on ECS or by deploying on ECS, and I am deploying my servers in EKS. Currently, I also manage automation scripting and container-based images to find EC2 instances and what servers are running in the background as part of my day-to-day activities using Amazon Linux.
Since using Amazon Linux, I have noticed a positive impact on my organization as it has become an industry standard for AWS native development. The benefits include much better resource isolation and more accurate monitoring for memory, CPU, and input-output. It makes running Docker or Kubernetes yield more predictable container performance with fewer out-of-memory kills that are hard to diagnose. Using Amazon Linux smooths the application running on Docker and Kubernetes, making it very efficient for deploying applications on cloud platforms including Amazon, Azure, and GCP.
What needs improvement?
I see definite areas where Amazon Linux could improve because it is not a one-size-fits-all solution. The single biggest pain point for long-time users is the lack of direct in-place upgrades from Amazon Linux to AL2, as moving to a new version requires launching new instances and manually migrating applications instead of simply running a command similar to some DNF system update. A migration tool that could handle the heavy lifting and configurations would save thousands of engineering hours. I have noticed that since 2023 does not support EPEL directly, AWS has introduced supplementary packages for Amazon Linux, which has been an adjustment.
I chose eight out of ten because, while there are many positives, some issues arise at the end of the line for Amazon Linux. I have faced some challenges when deploying clusters in AWS, particularly with some recent updates that have changed since version twenty-three, leading me to believe there is room for improvement.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Amazon Linux is stable and more flexible, allowing easy scalability at no cost. It is designed by the same engineers who created the underlying hardware, EC2, as well as the orchestration services, ECS and EKS, effectively removing many traditional bottlenecks associated with scaling large fleets.
In terms of container scalability, I find it to have deterministic reliability, no broken scale-outs, and it boosts speed and safety in container orchestrations with dynamic scaling. It provides resource control and consistency, contributing to Amazon Linux's reputation for stability.
How are customer service and support?
The customer support for Amazon Linux is good, as they quickly guide me through issues whenever I contact them, resolving problems within a short time.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
Before switching to Amazon Linux two thousand twenty-three, I typically used Amazon Linux two, Ubuntu, CentOS, and Red Hat. The end of life for those older distributions was a primary reason for switching, as security updates for Amazon Linux are ending in June two thousand twenty-six. Amazon Linux two thousand twenty-three provides modern features such as cgroup v2 and systemd-timers that older versions lack, and while Ubuntu is good for development, it is not tuned for AWS hardware out of the box. Amazon Linux two thousand twenty-three offers better performance under Graviton chips and significantly faster operations.
How was the initial setup?
My experience with pricing, setup costs, and licensing for Amazon Linux is very straightforward and completely free. I simply select it from the quick start tab when launching an EC2 instance with no additional cost or complex licensing terms to manage. The operating system is free, and I only pay for infrastructure, such as approximately zero cost for a T3 small instance, where the EC2 instances charge about zero point zero two one per hour.
What was our ROI?
I see that return on investment is usually measured in efficiency gains rather than in a simple monetary form. Since the operating system itself is free and by using Amazon Linux two thousand twenty-three, many organizations have been qualifying this transaction through a mix of cloud-based operations.
Since switching to Amazon Linux, I have seen improvements clearly shown in infrastructure metrics. Some wins commonly seen after switching, particularly when moving from general-purpose distributions such as Ubuntu, include approximately twenty to forty percent better price-performance ratio. The outcomes combine massive savings of over one million in under a year by migrating workloads to Graviton-based instances running Amazon Linux, as AL two thousand twenty-three is optimized for ARM at the compiler level, allowing applications to run more effectively and function on smaller instances. I have also noted faster deployments, including a forty to sixty percent reduction in AMI size, significantly faster boot times, and a boost in faster auto-scaling to reduce cold start latencies, with zero downtime regarding patching for critical vulnerabilities.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
I evaluated several options, including Ubuntu and CentOS. As previously mentioned, Ubuntu is great for development but not optimized for AWS, and CentOS's move to a streamed model is less stable for production. Many organizations moved to Amazon Linux for a more flexible long-term support cycle.
What other advice do I have?
The biggest advantage I find in using Amazon Linux is the ability to determine updates throughout the version repositories. In older versions, I ran a yum update, but now I can pin different packages based on commands I run. This advantage allows me to test updates in a staging environment and be one hundred percent certain that the exact same packages will be applied in production, eliminating issues where something worked on one machine or worked yesterday. It is also beneficial as it boosts faster boot times, supports Amazon Graviton ARM processors, and optimizes the operating system for those processors. Moreover, it efficiently uses fewer resources including CPU and RAM, allowing my applications to run on smaller, cheaper instance types with secure by default configurations.
I recommend Amazon Linux for its free use, stable performance, faster control, and scalability, making it suitable for everyone.
To clarify, I did not purchase Amazon Linux through the AWS Marketplace because it is directly provided by AWS at no additional cost, so a purchase or subscription is not required. Unlike many other enterprise Linux distributions, such as Red Hat Enterprise Linux that require a paid subscription, Amazon Linux is offered by AWS as a free operating system for use on EC2 instances. There is no need to visit the marketplace to buy it.
Overall, I would rate Amazon Linux at an eight out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Hybrid Cloud
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Amazon Web Services (AWS)
Cloud platform has transformed security and cut operating costs for high-traffic workloads
What is our primary use case?
My main use case for
Amazon Linux is cloud-optimized application hosting. I use it as a standard OS for
Amazon EC2 instances to run web servers, container hosts, and microservices. Because it is tuned for
AWS infrastructure, it is provided at low latency and best performance. During peak traffic, our system automatically launches new
EC2 instances running
Amazon Linux. These instances come pre-baked with
AWS CLI and security tools, which allows them to integrate with our
S3 buckets and
RDS database immediately.
What is most valuable?
The best features Amazon Linux offers include remote sharing features such as AWS Systems Manager Session Manager. This allows our remote DevOps team to share secure terminal access to an instance via the browser, which eliminates the need for us to manage SSH keys or open port 22. This makes it much easier and safer for remote collaboration and troubleshooting.
Amazon Linux has significantly improved our security and deployment speed. By using an OS that is secure by default and pre-integrated with AWS tools, our team spends less time on basic configuration and more time on high-value application development. Around 75% of our time has been reduced since the basic hardening concepts are reduced. We do not need to apply all the hardenings to the new VMs that we are creating. By default, the image provided by Amazon has hardening applied, so our 75% of time has been reduced and has been allocated to application development purposes.
What needs improvement?
Amazon Linux could be improved by providing more third-party software packages. They could expand the repositories for many cutting-edge development tools that are not included in the core release yet. I feel Amazon Linux offers the best balance of modern features and security. Making sure about the kernel live patching is a great game changer that it is already offering. So there is still room for improvement.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Amazon Linux for about three years as our primary operating system for hosting production workloads and cloud-native applications on AWS.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Amazon Linux is extremely stable. AWS provides long-term support for versions such as Amazon Linux 2, and the newer Amazon Linux 2023 is designed with a predictable release cycle. Since it is purpose-built for the cloud, it lacks the bloat of traditional desktop-focused distributions, which leads to fewer crashes and higher uptime.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Amazon Linux is built for hyperscale because it is highly optimized for the AWS Nitro System and lightweight in nature. We can launch hundreds of instances in an auto-scaling group. It scales effortlessly from the smallest nano instance to high-performance computing clusters.
How are customer service and support?
The customer support for Amazon Linux is providing great help. All the requirements that we give to them are met immediately with their assistance, and they are doing a great job.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We previously used CentOS. We switched to Amazon Linux because we wanted an OS with a more predictable lifecycle and tighter integration with AWS support. Moving to a distribution that is officially maintained by Amazon gave us better peace of mind regarding long-term security patches and performance tuning.
How was the initial setup?
The experience with Amazon Linux pricing, setup cost, and licensing was seamless. The standard Amazon Linux image is provided for free by AWS. We have used the AWS Marketplace to deploy the CIS hardened versions of Amazon Linux. The licensing is straightforward and billing is consolidated directly into our AWS account, which makes the procurement very easy.
What about the implementation team?
I purchased Amazon Linux through the AWS Marketplace.
What was our ROI?
The ROI with Amazon Linux is high because there are zero licensing fees. By switching the compute fleet from a paid distribution to Amazon Linux, we have reduced our OS-related overhead cost by 100%. Additionally, optimized performance has allowed us to run the same workloads on slightly smaller instance types, saving us roughly 10% on monthly compute spend.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
Before choosing Amazon Linux, CentOS was the major solution we considered, but we finally ended up choosing Amazon Linux.
What other advice do I have?
My advice for others looking into using Amazon Linux is to embrace Amazon Linux 2023 for all new projects. It offers the best balance of modern features and security. The live kernel patching is a great feature that Amazon Linux offers for people who are going to use the system securely without having a scheduled maintenance window for reboots.
Amazon Linux is truly a performance-first choice for anyone operating in the cloud. It turns the operating system from a management burden into a strategic advantage, providing a high-security environment without the premium price tag of other enterprise Linux distributions. I would rate this product a 9 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)
Efficient cloud workflows have improved how we deploy microservices and manage user data
What is our primary use case?
Amazon Linux is used for hosting back-end applications created in Node.js, databases, and DevOps purposes. Microservices, such as Docker services, are deployed on Amazon Linux.
Amazon Linux is used with EC2, the AWS EC2 service, which is the primary service for deploying back-end services. A microservice architecture is implemented using EC2 instances for deploying particular services in Amazon.
Amazon Linux is also used for RDBMS and SQL databases deployed in Amazon for database purposes.
Amazon S3 bucket is used for storing resumes of candidates because the application is a hiring platform, requiring resume file storage for retrieval and pre-signed URL generation. Whenever resumes need to be stored, an S3 bucket is used. CloudWatch is used to monitor the changes occurring during application deployment in EC2 instances.
What is most valuable?
Amazon Linux offers multiple services such as EC2, S3 bucket, EKS, and CloudWatch, which are valuable for application requirements.
A specific example of how Amazon Linux has positively impacted the organization involves storing images and resumes with quick and faster retrieval. Although other options were checked, S3 was the quickest option because it provided 99.9% availability and very reliable performance. Resumes are stored in an S3 bucket in the respective file, and pre-signed URLs are fetched and stored in the SQL database tables. Whenever a resume is needed, the S3 URL is used directly to fetch the resume.
Amazon Linux and S3 services, including live trail functionality, provide better visibility of changes being deployed to particular services. When a service is deployed, the ability to check if it is failing and at what point it is failing is crucial. After deployment, live trails can be checked and logs put in the code can be viewed in the live trail. The EC2 instance is very effective because it can be scaled according to application needs. With currently over 10,000 users, scalability becomes important if growth reaches over 1 lakh users. Amazon Linux provides very good scalability.
What needs improvement?
Amazon Linux could be improved in the user interface part, as it is quite complicated for new users. Compared to Ubuntu or CentOS, Amazon Linux has a smaller community, resulting in fewer available tutorials. Additionally, there is less flexibility outside of AWS services. Amazon Linux is best optimized for AWS but is not ideal for local development or multi-cloud environments.
For how long have I used the solution?
Amazon Linux has been used for two years throughout my career.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Amazon Linux is quite stable and very reliable for the type of application in use.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Amazon Linux is very scalable. The organization has grown from 10,000 users to 1 lakh users, and the service provided is very reliable and highly scalable.
How are customer service and support?
Customer support is great, though it has not been needed because the service is working quite well and has not required customer support assistance.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
Previously, Linux on Amazon or Ubuntu was used, but Ubuntu was not very beginner-friendly and the setup was more difficult. Amazon Linux was chosen due to its advantages over Ubuntu.
How was the initial setup?
Deployment is faster and visibility is achieved very quickly, making it more reliable overall.
Amazon Linux setup is somewhat challenging initially, but once familiarity with the system is gained, it works very well for applications. For full-stack web-based applications or mobile applications, Amazon Linux provides very good support for back-end and front-end deployments and the entire CI/CD process. The service can be utilized directly without extensive preliminary work.
What about the implementation team?
Amazon Linux is deployed independently; since it runs on AWS infrastructure, separate deployment is not necessary as it is publicly available.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Pricing is very good. The setup could be more beginner-friendly, and regarding licensing, there is limited knowledge, but it is free to use. Payment is only required for the EC2 instance and for data transfer or storage. Setup on AWS EC2 is very quick, typically within minutes, making it cost-effective and easy to deploy.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
No other options have been searched for or considered except for Amazon Linux.
What other advice do I have?
Amazon Linux and S3 services, including live trail functionality, provide better visibility of changes being deployed to particular services. When a service is deployed, the ability to check if it is failing and at what point it is failing is important. After deployment, live trails can be checked and logs put in the code can be viewed in the live trail. The EC2 instance is very effective because it can be scaled according to application needs. With currently over 10,000 users, scalability becomes significant if growth reaches over 1 lakh users. Amazon Linux is highly scalable and very reliable, making it an excellent choice overall. This review has been rated 9 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)
Hosted critical applications reliably and now focus development time on features instead of images
What is our primary use case?
My main use case for Amazon Linux is to host my company's applications, internal applications, and automations.
For example, I host my own application called IriusRisk on Amazon Linux. I also deploy internal applications such as GoCD, which is a CI/CD solution, and I deploy agents that report information to my SIEM.
What is most valuable?
The best features Amazon Linux offers include how easy it is to deploy; I can launch a new EC2 instance from an AWS Amazon Linux image, and it helps significantly with maintenance since I do not have to maintain the image itself as it is already provided by AWS.
The easy deployment and managed images have helped my team by making it completely transparent for my engineers; we do not need to generate the images, we do not have to maintain the packages, and we only have to consume Amazon Linux images to always get the latest version.
Amazon Linux has positively impacted my organization by providing a great solution for hosting all of my applications, and it has helped my team focus only on the development of my applications since we do not have to worry about maintaining any base image.
Specific outcomes that show how Amazon Linux has helped my team include fewer issues since we do not have to worry about my own images or keep track of package versioning, which already comes within AWS Amazon Linux and translates into more performance since the images are already built; I cannot provide a metric since we have already used this image, and we have never had to build my own images.
What needs improvement?
Amazon Linux can be improved by providing security updates more frequently.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Amazon Linux for eight years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The scalability of Amazon Linux is really good since I can consume it every time I need.
How are customer service and support?
I have never had to use customer support for Amazon Linux, but I have used AWS customer support service, and it is really helpful with a very short response time.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I did not previously use a different solution.
What was our ROI?
I do not have any specific ROI metrics since I have always used Amazon Linux for deploying my products, but I know that I have some other images that I build myself, and I know that building them, maintaining them, and deploying them is much less effective than deploying an Amazon Linux image because I have to maintain them and keep an eye on the packages used to ensure they are up to date and do not have any security issues.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing is that it is very easy and straightforward; I just fill a form and my instance is already running if using the image, and as for the pricing, it is included within the AWS cloud usage, so no extra fees are added by Amazon Linux.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
Before choosing Amazon Linux, I did not evaluate other options.
What other advice do I have?
I would rate Amazon Linux a 10 out of 10.
I chose a 10 because it helps speed up deployments, it is really scalable, and it saves me a lot of headaches.
I do not purchase Amazon Linux through the AWS Marketplace; I use AWS Amazon Linux from within the EC2 application and do not have to buy it in the marketplace.
My advice to others looking into using Amazon Linux is to use it, and you will find new use cases for it; it will help you significantly in shipping faster.
My overall review rating for Amazon Linux is 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)
Cloud-native workloads have become secure, automated, and efficient for continuous delivery
What is our primary use case?
My primary use case was Amazon Linux as the default operating system for EC2 instances supporting Docker-based container deployments, CI/CD pipelines using Jenkins, Kubernetes worker nodes, back-end application servers, and monitoring and logging agents. I used Amazon Linux as an operating system in the service known as Amazon EC2 in Amazon Web Services. Our workflow typically involved provisioning EC2 instances with Amazon Linux, configuring IAM roles, installing Docker and runtime dependencies, setting up services, and deploying applications via automated CI/CD pipelines. Amazon Linux acted as the core layer in our cloud architecture. After provisioning EC2 instances, we used yum as the package manager to install and manage system dependencies. Security updates were applied automatically through AWS managed repositories, ensuring compliance and organizational security standards. Amazon Linux was used for both learning projects and production-like client deployments. Client identities cannot be disclosed, but its predictable update cycle and stability made it suitable for long-running services.
We used Amazon Linux for Docker daemon and container runtimes, for Jenkins agents and build servers, for NGINX and many back-end services, for CloudWatch agents for metrics, and for log collection. During my internship at Cognizant, I extensively worked with Amazon Linux as the primary operating system for workloads deployed on AWS. Amazon Linux served as the base OS for EC2 instances, running Docker containers, CI/CD tools, monitoring agents, and back-end services. Amazon Linux is a purpose-built Linux distribution maintained by AWS, optimized for AWS infrastructure, and designed to deliver long-term stability and enhanced security. The tight integration with native AWS services provides a production-ready environment with minimal overhead, making it suitable for enterprise-grade cloud deployments. It significantly reduces operational complexity in AWS environments. A solid understanding of Linux system administration and AWS fundamentals is required for efficient usage.
I strongly recommend learning Linux system administration fundamentals and AWS core services such as EC2, IAM, VPC, and CloudWatch for setting up the instance and giving basic permissions for users to use it, and security and network basics. When combined with Docker, CI/CD pipelines, and AWS infrastructure, Amazon Linux becomes a powerful and reliable operating system for cloud-native applications.
What is most valuable?
The best features Amazon Linux offers is that it has many packages installed as an operating system. I can directly use tools such as Docker runtime, Jenkins, and any DevOps features such as Ansible and many other tools. I can directly access it in the Linux environment using Amazon Linux. What stood out to me and made my experience better were the security updates. I continue to receive security updates so that bugs cannot come through the system.
Technical benefits include the AWS-optimized kernel, which is tuned for better EC2 performance, native IAM integration for secure access without static credentials, and CloudWatch compatibility for system-level monitoring. It has a security-first design, including SE Linux support and rapid patching. Amazon Linux reduces operational risk by minimizing incompatibilities between the OS and AWS infrastructure.
Amazon Linux is highly stable. In my experience, EC2 instances run continuously for long periods without unexpected OS failures. Combined with AWS managed infrastructure, it provides enterprise-grade reliability suitable for production workloads. Amazon Linux scales efficiently with AWS. It supports horizontal scaling using EC2 Auto Scaling groups and vertical scaling by resizing instance types. It performs consistently under high CPU, memory, and input-output workloads. It is well-suited for microservices and container platforms and for high-traffic back-end systems.
What needs improvement?
From a technical perspective, Amazon Linux could improve in broader availability of third-party packages, simplified system-level troubleshooting tools, and more beginner-focused system administration documentation. New users often need time to understand the permissions of Linux, networking, system services, and AWS security models together.
Amazon Linux has some limitations, such as a smaller package ecosystem compared to Ubuntu. It requires deep Linux knowledge for troubleshooting. The AWS-centric design makes it less portable outside AWS.
For how long have I used the solution?
I am not currently using Amazon Linux, but I used it during my entire internship with Cognizant, probably for five to six months.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Amazon Linux is highly stable. In my experience, EC2 instances run continuously for long periods without unexpected OS failures. Combined with AWS managed infrastructure, it provides enterprise-grade reliability suitable for production workloads.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Amazon Linux scales efficiently with AWS. It supports horizontal scaling using EC2 Auto Scaling groups and vertical scaling by resizing instance types. It performs consistently under high CPU, memory, and input-output workloads.
How are customer service and support?
Regarding community support and customer services, AWS provides extensive documentation and security advisors for Amazon Linux. Most issues can be resolved using official AWS documentation, AWS knowledge bases, community forums, and internal support teams.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
Previously, I used general-purpose Linux distributions such as Ubuntu. I switched to Amazon Linux because it is fully optimized for AWS infrastructure. It integrates more naturally with AWS services, and it provides long-term support without license costs.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is moderately complex. Launching an EC2 instance with Amazon Linux is straightforward, but configuring IAM roles, network security such as setting up VPC and security groups, and user permissions and services requires some foundational Linux and AWS knowledge. Once configured, daily operations are efficient and low-maintenance.
What was our ROI?
Amazon Linux delivers a positive return on investment by eliminating OS licensing costs, reducing maintenance overhead, improving operational stability, and accelerating DevOps and deployment workflows. While specialized knowledge is required, the long-term cost and reliability benefits outweigh the learning curve.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Amazon Linux is provided at no additional charge by AWS. This means I will not pay anything extra for the OS itself. AWS distributes and maintains Linux images free of licensing fees. Although Amazon Linux itself is free, I still incur AWS usage charges for the services I host on it.
If I am a new AWS customer, the AWS Free Tier typically includes, for the first six months, micro instances such as t2.micro or t3.micro for free, so I can use that.
What other advice do I have?
Amazon Linux is an operating system, and I can install any of the other tools such as DevOps tools and other back-end services, back-end servers, and also AWS tools. I primarily used it in an EC2 instance, and an EC2 instance can be combined with any AWS tool, per my knowledge.
Amazon Linux is open to all AWS services. I can integrate any AWS service using Amazon Linux.
It is a cloud service that I use. The updates will be done by Amazon. I do not need to do anything. Amazon and AWS will handle the updates of Amazon Linux.
I rated this product nine 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)
Secure, optimized environment has supported cost savings and reliable monolithic deployments
What is our primary use case?
I normally use Amazon Linux for monolithic applications or websites as a web server. Amazon Linux helps me run those monolithic applications or web servers by allowing us to install NGINX or HTTPd using the package managers, RPM. Amazon Linux provides a secure, stable, and high-performance environment that is optimized for the AWS ecosystem itself. It features deep AWS services integration, long-term support, and performance tuning for EC2, making it a reliable choice for monolithic applications.
I normally use Amazon Linux for containerized applications as well, such as EKS. As node groups in EKS, we use Amazon Linux AMIs. Since it is reliable, secure, and gives long-term support from Amazon AWS itself, it serves our needs well.
What is most valuable?
Considering the best features Amazon Linux offers, I would say the security and reliability stand out. The operating system has been optimized by AWS itself, so it is highly optimized. There are various pre-installed AWS tools inside it. It is Graviton optimized for Arm-based workloads and has security by default with enhanced security, lifecycle, and deterministic updates. Upgrades are also good in this offering. It is cost-effective and works well with the modern toolchain.
Regarding those features, Amazon Linux benefits my day-to-day work by enhancing creativity and content generation with visuals in slides, video productions, and it is quite time-saving.
Regarding how Amazon Linux has impacted my organization positively, it helped us mostly with the costing part. Beyond that, the security posture has improved, which is always a big challenge in larger organizations.
Using Amazon Linux gives us a pay-as-you-go model, paying for fewer resources instead of a large upfront investment in hardware servers. I have seen various case studies which have helped save a lot of costs. Regarding security, I have seen very few incidents related to Amazon Linux. There are various kernel issues which we face in other operating systems, but not in Amazon Linux.
What needs improvement?
While VM images exist in other virtualization platforms, Amazon Linux is primarily designed for EC2 itself. Expanding official support for on-premise and hybrid scenarios would improve the flexibility for companies with multi-cloud setups. Additionally, expanded package repositories for third-party software would be beneficial. Compared to Ubuntu or Red Hat, Amazon Linux has smaller communities and fewer third-party repositories. Documentation examples could be improved by providing more real-world, varied use case examples rather than just command references.
Amazon Linux should be easily upgradable. From Amazon Linux 2 to Amazon Linux 2023 requires a complete migration, as there is no direct in-place upgrade path. Having an easier upgrade path for migrating from one version to another would be really helpful. Standardized Yum behaviors would also help because Amazon Linux 2023 defaults to DNF, while Amazon Linux 2 was established using Yum workflows. This creates minor compatibility hurdles. Although we can use Yum, it would be better if those behaviors were standardized. Minor improvements could also be made regarding an enhanced terminal experience.
I did not rate Amazon Linux as a perfect ten because of the upgrade path and standardizing the package behaviors. The improvements I needed in Amazon Linux included the upgrade path, standardizing the package behaviors, and support for third-party software. That is why I rated it nine instead of ten.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Amazon Linux for the past seven years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
In my experience, Amazon Linux is stable. I have not faced any issues with stability.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
In my experience, Amazon Linux's scalability is not an issue. I have not faced any issues with that.
How are customer service and support?
The experience with customer support for Amazon Linux was very good. I interacted with them a couple of times and they were very helpful.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
Previously, I was on a private cloud setup where we used to use Ubuntu or Red Hat as per the customer requirements. Later on, I switched to Amazon Linux because of its security and compatibility and everything else it offers.
How was the initial setup?
My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing was really good. The cost is comparatively less, and since there is no license involved when we are using it within AWS itself, the setup was also quite simple. Overall, it was a good experience.
What about the implementation team?
I took Amazon Linux from the Marketplace itself.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing was really good. The cost is comparatively less, and since there is no license involved when we are using it within AWS itself, the setup was also quite simple. Overall, it was a good experience.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
I have not explored any other options because Amazon Linux itself has a lot of options and features which really helped me with my applications deployment and everything else. If I wanted to explore alternatives, I would have considered Ubuntu, which is also similarly very good.
What other advice do I have?
Most of what I would recommend relates to the security, performance, compatibilities, and support of Amazon Linux that I mentioned earlier. My advice is to not perform in-place upgrades. Try to identify the differences that exist between Amazon Linux 2 and 2023 before upgrading. I rated this product nine out of ten overall.
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)
Robust cloud platform has delivered secure, high‑performance workloads with lower operating costs
What is our primary use case?
My main use case for Amazon Linux is to run my production environment in a robust, scalable operating system. I have a SaaS platform where we run all our servers in Amazon, and we use Amazon Linux as the operating system that serves all our servers to our customers.
What is most valuable?
Being a SaaS platform, we need to ensure the security of the platform that we are running, and Amazon Linux provides the latest and greatest patches with all the packages included, making it easier for us to manage. The best features Amazon Linux offers include a very good package management system where we can quickly install everything, and the packages are compatible and very performant with Graviton processors. Graviton is even cheaper, but we do not have much expertise on running things on Arm processors, so we rely on the operating system, which abstracts us from the Arm processor to the application. Amazon Linux helps us do that, and the performance is so high on these servers. They are fine-tuned in such a way that it can use the best out of the hardware. Amazon Linux has positively impacted our organization. We were running on normal servers which were expensive, and we moved to Graviton servers. If we had used any other operating system, there might have been many packaging issues with the modules that we are using, the classes, the objects, and other components. Amazon Linux comes with all the packages required to run on Graviton, which helped us reduce our cost. We were able to achieve almost 30% more improvement in performance on the servers and almost 10% reduction in cost.
What needs improvement?
Amazon Linux is currently available mostly in Amazon, but I would like to see it available outside as well. Amazon last provided some security patches that were not very fast, which was one reason I did not rate it higher, along with a few things, such as some particular versions of Python that are not readily available in Amazon Linux.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Amazon Linux for almost four years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
We have Amazon Linux servers which we have not restarted for almost three years, and the operating system is very robust. Once we received a security patch from Amazon through proactive updates, and we had to update it. Amazon Linux is stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Amazon Linux is highly scalable.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
Previously, we were using CentOS, and we switched to Amazon Linux for better reliability and continuous support, as Amazon Linux was also a Fedora flavor.
What was our ROI?
I have seen a return on investment. As I mentioned earlier, we were able to increase the performance by at least 10 to 20% and also reduce the cost by up to 10%.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing for Amazon Linux is that it was decent, and in fact, it was good.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
Before choosing Amazon Linux, I evaluated CentOS as an option.
What other advice do I have?
My advice to others looking into using Amazon Linux is that if you are moving to Graviton servers, Amazon Linux would be the best option, as you will get almost all the packages right away in Amazon Linux. I give this review a rating 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?
Optimized performance and tight cloud integration have delivered secure, low‑cost app deployments
What is our primary use case?
My main use case for Amazon Linux is deploying Java microservice applications, Python applications, and .NET applications. I chose Amazon Linux most of the time because my platform and infrastructure are hosted in Amazon, so the compatibility is fine with Amazon Linux while using Amazon.
I deploy applications on Amazon Linux by writing scripts in the user data script and deploying the web application from there.
Amazon Linux is deployed in my organization in a private cloud where we deploy everything.
What is most valuable?
The best features Amazon Linux offers include optimized performance and tight AWS integration. SELinux is enabled on Amazon Linux and performs automatic security patching and CVE fixes. Critical vulnerability fixes and those security features have helped me significantly. The integration with AWS CLI, Cloud-init, and services such as SSM Agent and CloudWatch agent has been useful.
Amazon Linux has positively impacted my organization primarily by providing cost savings, as we do not want to spend on the OS portion.
What needs improvement?
Amazon Linux can be improved by integrating other cloud features so that other cloud providers can also use Amazon Linux. GCP and Azure could benefit from Amazon Linux compatibility as well.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Amazon Linux for seven years.
What was our ROI?
I have saved approximately five percent.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
My experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing includes working on multiple other vendor licenses for the software licensing portion. The setup cost involves initial migration planning and related activities.
What other advice do I have?
Amazon Linux cost is free to use, which provides significant cost optimization benefits that we always leverage. My advice to others looking into using Amazon Linux is to use it and save your cost. I would rate this product nine out of 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)
