Amazon EC2 - Attack & Defense

Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) is AWS’s core computing service. It provides lab machines, called instances, running an operating system of your choice. Every Instance resides in a private network called a Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) (covered in the next room).

EC2 meets all of the attributes of cloud computing as defined by NIST. EC2 Instances are created via the AWS API and take several seconds to a few minutes to fully provision. They run on multi-tenant hardware and, in most cases, can spin up and spin down at a moment’s notice. They support per-second billing providing high-resolution measured service. With EC2, you only pay for computing resources when you need them. EC2 instances can be deployed into 26 different geographical regions (opens in new tab) (as of Jul 2022) across 19 countries and six continents.

EC2 Instances deploy as an Instance Type. The Instance Type defines the Memory, CPU Architecture (Intel, AMD, ARM), and Network Capacity in combinations optimized for different use-cases. As of July 2022, more than 500 different instance types are available. (opens in new tab)

Amazon EC2 supports multiple billing models. On-Demand instances are the most common; you pay for what you use and don’t pay for what you don’t use. When workloads are more predictable, AWS customers can purchase Reserved Instances in 1 - 3 year terms to save money. If you have a workload that can easily recover from an interruption, you can deploy your workload as Spot Instances and pay below-market rates for AWS’s unused capacity.

AWS supports Linux, Windows, and even MacOS as operating systems.

If you haven't already done so, click the orange Cloud Details button at the top-right of the page, generate the Cloud Environment, and use the Credentials provided to access your TryHackMe Cloud Sandbox (AWS console).