I use Amazon EC2 for several reasons. They basically boil down to having everything I want with little hassle.
- I can hold my own as far as basic sysadmin functions go, and I like having control over the entire software stack. A lot of Amazon EC2 machine images can be stripped bare to give me only what I need.
- I don't have a lot of money to blow on a dedicated machine each month, so it's nice to at least have a running environment even if it's virtualized (and therefore slower). At least I can know if my code works out in the wild.
- I pay only for what I use. There's also the option to leave it on and pay in advance (Reserved Instances). So whether my projects end up being just small diversions or whether they gain traction, there's a pricing plan I can go with. It was meant for companies to scale up and down, but I've actually found it useful for scaling my personal projects up and down.
- The management tools are pretty good. ElasticFox is clunky at times but it has everything I need without a whole lot of hassle.
- Elastic IPs. I can claim a static IP if I wish, or just choose not to use it.
Amazon has exposed a lot of stuff over their APIs, but don't be fooled into thinking that this means they added layers and layers of cruft akin to all the useless software that comes on new PCs. The APIs just work on a meta level -- useful if you want to package up machines and that kind of stuff -- but if all you need is a Linux box with good bandwidth for your personal projects, give Amazon a shot.
There's also the added bonus that they're, well, Amazon. And they're not going away anytime soon.
- I can hold my own as far as basic sysadmin functions go, and I like having control over the entire software stack. A lot of Amazon EC2 machine images can be stripped bare to give me only what I need.
- I don't have a lot of money to blow on a dedicated machine each month, so it's nice to at least have a running environment even if it's virtualized (and therefore slower). At least I can know if my code works out in the wild.
- I pay only for what I use. There's also the option to leave it on and pay in advance (Reserved Instances). So whether my projects end up being just small diversions or whether they gain traction, there's a pricing plan I can go with. It was meant for companies to scale up and down, but I've actually found it useful for scaling my personal projects up and down.
- The management tools are pretty good. ElasticFox is clunky at times but it has everything I need without a whole lot of hassle.
- Elastic IPs. I can claim a static IP if I wish, or just choose not to use it.
Amazon has exposed a lot of stuff over their APIs, but don't be fooled into thinking that this means they added layers and layers of cruft akin to all the useless software that comes on new PCs. The APIs just work on a meta level -- useful if you want to package up machines and that kind of stuff -- but if all you need is a Linux box with good bandwidth for your personal projects, give Amazon a shot.
There's also the added bonus that they're, well, Amazon. And they're not going away anytime soon.