Learn to work with the most fundamental services AWS offers such as DynamoDB, S3, and EC2 to create reliable and scalable systems.

Scalability & System Design for Developers

In this module, we’ll learn to work with the most fundamental services AWS offers, such as DynamoDB, S3, and EC2 to create reliable and scalable systems. Walk through getting a basic web application running in the cloud on AWS. You won’t find most of the knowledge that's shared here in the AWS docs.

The Good Parts of AWS: Cutting Through the Clutter

EC2 allows you to get a complete computer in the cloud in a matter of seconds. The nice thing about EC2 is that the computer you get will be very similar to the computer you use to develop your software. If you can run your software on your computer, you can almost certainly run it on EC2 without any changes. This is one of EC2’s main advantages compared to other types of compute platforms (such as Lambda): you don’t have to adapt your application to your host.

# Instance types

EC2 is a sophisticated service with dozens of options that you will likely never need. This is the result of the highly varied workloads and use cases serviced by EC2. Nevertheless, the defaults that EC2 comes with are good default choices, and the most consequential decision you will have to make is selecting an instance type. As of the time of writing, EC2 offers 256 different instance types, but they can be narrowed down to a few categories defined by what they’re optimized for: 
- CPU
- Memory 
- Network 
- Storage
- etc.

with different instance sizes for each category.

A snapshot of some of the AWS EC2 latest generation General Purpose (GP) Instance types is shown in the below table. 

<table style=" border:3px solid #000;border-spacing: 0.5em;border-collapse:separate; ">

<tr>
<td center;
 margin-right: 1em; color: #ffffff; background-color: 	#00578a; border:0px solid #000;border-spacing: 0.5em;border-collapse:separate; outline: thin solid black; ">
Instance Size
</td>

<td >
vCPU
</td>

<td >
Memory (GiB)
</td>
<td >
Instance Storage (GiB)
</td>
<td >
Network 
Bandwidth (Gbps)
</td>
<td >
EBS Bandwidth (Mbps)
</td>

</tr>

<tr>
<td left;
 margin-right: 1em; color: #022316;; background-color: #ececec; ">
m5.large
</td>
<td >
2
</td>
</td>
<td >
8
</td>
</td>
<td >
EBS-Only
</td>
</td>
<td >
Up to 10
</td>
<td >
Up to 4,750
</td>

</tr>
<tr>
<td left;
 margin-right: 1em; color: #022316;; background-color: #ececec; ">
m5.xlarge
</td>
<td >
4
</td>
</td>
<td >
16
</td>
</td>
<td >
EBS-Only
</td>
</td>
<td >
Up to 10
</td>

<td >
Up to 4,750
</td>

</tr>
<tr>
<td left;
 margin-right: 1em; color: #022316;; background-color: #ececec; ">
m5.2xlarge
</td>
<td >
8
</td>
</td>
<td >
32
</td>
</td>
<td >
EBS-Only
</td>
</td>
<td >
Up to 10
</td>

<td >
Up to 4,750
</td>

</tr>
<tr>
<td left;
 margin-right: 1em; color: #022316;; background-color: #ececec; ">
m5.4xlarge
</td>
<td >
16
</td>
</td>
<td >
64
</td>
</td>
<td >
EBS-Only
</td>
</td>
<td >
Up to 10
</td>
<td >
4,750
</td>

</tr>

<tr>
<td left;
 margin-right: 1em; color: #022316;; background-color: #ececec; ">
m5.8xlarge
</td>
<td >
32
</td>
</td>
<td >
128
</td>
</td>
<td >
EBS-Only
</td>
</td>
<td >
10
</td>

<td >
6,800
</td>

</tr>
<tr>
<td left;
 margin-right: 1em; color: #022316;; background-color: #ececec; ">
m5.12xlarge
</td>
<td >
48
</td>
</td>
<td >
192
</td>
</td>
<td >
EBS-Only
</td>
</td>
<td >
10
</td>

<td >
9,500
</td>

</tr>

<tr>
<td left;
 margin-right: 1em; color: #022316;; background-color: #ececec; ">
m5.16xlarge
</td>
<td >
64
</td>
</td>
<td >
256
</td>
</td>
<td >
EBS-Only
</td>
</td>
<td >
20
</td>

<td >
13,600
</td>

</tr>

<tr>
<td left;
 margin-right: 1em; color: #022316;; background-color: #ececec; ">
m5.24xlarge
</td>
<td >
96
</td>
</td>
<td >
384
</td>
</td>
<td >
EBS-Only
</td>
</td>
<td >
25
</td>

<td >
19,000
</td>

</tr>

<tr>
<td left;
 margin-right: 1em; color: #022316;; background-color: #ececec; ">
m5d.large
</td>
<td >
2
</td>
</td>
<td >
8
</td>
</td>
<td >
1 x 75 NVMe SSD	
</td>
</td>
<td >
Up to 10	
</td>

<td >
Up to 4,750
</td>

</tr>

<tr>
<td left;
 margin-right: 1em; color: #022316;; background-color: #ececec; ">
m5d.xlarge
</td>
<td >
4
</td>
</td>
<td >
16
</td>
</td>
<td >
1 x 150 NVMe SSD	
</td>
</td>
<td >
Up to 10	
</td>

<td >
Up to 4,750
</td>

</tr>

<tr>
<td left;
 margin-right: 1em; color: #022316;; background-color: #ececec; ">
m5d.2xlarge
</td>
<td >
8
</td>
</td>
<td >
32
</td>
</td>
<td >
1 x 300 NVMe SSD	
</td>
</td>
<td >
Up to 10	
</td>

<td >
Up to 4,750
</td>

</tr>

<tr>
<td left;
 margin-right: 1em; color: #022316;; background-color: #ececec; ">
m5d.4xlarge
</td>
<td >
16
</td>
</td>
<td >
64
</td>
</td>
<td >
2 x 300 NVMe SSD	
</td>
</td>
<td >
Up to 10	
</td>

<td >
4,750
</td>

</tr>

<tr>
<td left;
 margin-right: 1em; color: #022316;; background-color: #ececec; ">
m5d.8xlarge
</td>
<td >
32
</td>
</td>
<td >
128
</td>
</td>
<td >
2 x 600 NVMe SSD	
</td>
</td>
<td >
10	
</td>

<td >
6,800
</td>

</tr>

<tr>
<td left;
 margin-right: 1em; color: #022316;; background-color: #ececec; ">
m5d.12xlarge
</td>
<td >
48
</td>
</td>
<td >
192
</td>
</td>
<td >
2 x 900 NVMe SSD	
</td>
</td>
<td >
10	
</td>

<td >
9,500
</td>

</tr>

<tr>
<td left;
 margin-right: 1em; color: #022316;; background-color: #ececec; ">
m5d.16xlarge
</td>
<td >
64
</td>
</td>
<td >
256
</td>
</td>
<td >
4 x 600 NVMe SSD	
</td>
</td>
<td >
20	
</td>

<td >
13,600
</td>

</tr>

<tr>
<td left;
 margin-right: 1em; color: #022316;; background-color: #ececec; ">
m5d.24xlarge
</td>
<td >
96
</td>
</td>
<td >
384
</td>
</td>
<td >
4 x 900 NVMe SSD	
</td>
</td>
<td >
25	
</td>

<td >
19,000
</td>

</tr>

</table>

Compute: EC2

Instance types