Should you or shouldn’t you use Amazons EC2 service? If you believe everything you read without bothering to send it through the hype filter the answer is invariably YES! But in reality (where most of the rest of us live) the question actually depends on a lot of different factors.

The, theoretically, most straight forward of those factors is raw cash. Lets say you were considering purchasing a low end server from, say, Servpath. You’re looking at $1999 per year for a server with a better CPU, but less RAM and HDD space. Versus (365 * 24 * 0.10 = ) $876 with an EC2 instance. Easy, right?

AHH but the devil is in the details. you get 0 (zero, none, nada, zilch, less than any) bandwidth with your Ec2 instance. Thats extra. Lets assume you use all 1500Gb per month you get with your low end server, the price at servpath is still $1999 for the year. The price at EC2 goes up by (1500 * 12 * 0.20 = ) $3600. Even if you pay monthly instead of yearly at servpath its only ($199 * 12 = ) $2388.

Of course if you use significantly less bandwidth… say… 300GB per month…

Servpath: $1999,
Amazon: $876 + (300 * 12 * 0.20 = ) $720 = $1596

But the real complexity comes when you worry about scaling, or handling peak versus off times. And further complexity when you start talking high availability, and load balancing. And yet further if you host static and dynamic content in different places, etc.

The bottom line is that all of these blog posts I see about the choice between traditional versus new-age hosting is not as simple as it is made out to be. Before you jump on the buzzword bandwagon you should really make sure that you’re investing in what makes *sense* for your business and not in what made sense for someone else.

Right about now you’re scratching your head and wondering whether I’m telling you TO use EC2 or NOT TO use EC2. And you’re reading this whole thing wrong (if thats what you’re wondering.) What I am telling you is that EC2 is an extremely flexible and versatile tool which has a huge possible number of advantageous scenarios into which it fills a void previously delegated to the realm of “there’s no solution other than to spend more money or not. period.” You use the sed utility when it makes sense, right? You wouldn’t, for example, attempt to use it to accept http uploads? Of course not that doesn’t even make sense! Well not all situations make sense for EC2 either.

EC2 is a lot like the OSS movement. The up side is that It gives people the power of flexibility and choice. But much like the “Is linux desktop ready?” debate thats been raging on for years you have to deal with the downside which is that it gives people the power of flexibility and choice. Double edged blade indeed. But well worth the risks… If you can learn to wield it properly!

Thoroughly confused yet? That isn’t even the half of it! 🙂