Amazon EC2 vs Amazon WorkSpaces

Overview

Amazon EC2

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Amazon WorkSpaces

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Amazon EC2 vs Amazon WorkSpaces: What are the differences?

Amazon EC2 and Amazon WorkSpaces are both cloud-based services provided by Amazon Web Services (AWS) for computing and desktop virtualization, respectively. While Amazon EC2 offers virtual servers in the cloud, Amazon WorkSpaces provides virtual desktops. Let's explore the key differences between them:

Purpose: Amazon EC2 is designed for running applications and workloads in a virtual server environment. It allows users to provision and manage virtual servers, known as instances, to run their applications and services. On the other hand, Amazon WorkSpaces focuses on providing virtual desktops, allowing users to access their desktop environment, applications, and data from various devices.
Use Case: Amazon EC2 is commonly used for a wide range of workloads, including web applications, batch processing, data processing, and enterprise applications. It offers flexibility in terms of instance types, operating systems, and networking configurations, making it suitable for different use cases. Amazon WorkSpaces, on the other hand, is particularly useful in scenarios where users require access to their personal desktop environment and applications from different devices, including laptops, tablets, and thin clients.
Resource Management: Amazon EC2 grants users precise control over virtual server instances, allowing them to select instance types, configure networking, storage, and security settings. Users can scale the number of instances to suit their needs and maintain complete control over the software stack on these instances. On the other hand, Amazon WorkSpaces provides managed virtual desktops, abstracting the underlying infrastructure. Users can specify the desired hardware bundle for their virtual desktops, while AWS handles infrastructure and resource management.
Desktop Experience: Amazon EC2 provides a headless server environment, meaning there is no graphical user interface (GUI) by default. Users typically access their EC2 instances remotely using secure shell (SSH) or remote desktop protocol (RDP) to perform server administration and application management. Amazon WorkSpaces, on the other hand, provides a full desktop experience with a GUI. Users can access their virtual desktops through client applications on their devices and have a familiar desktop environment with applications and files.
Data Persistence: In Amazon EC2, data persistence is typically achieved through storage options like Amazon Elastic Block Store (EBS) volumes or Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3). Users can attach persistent storage volumes to their EC2 instances or use object storage for data storage and backup. In Amazon WorkSpaces, user data and profiles are automatically saved and preserved in a managed storage service. When users access their virtual desktops in different sessions, their data and settings persist, providing a consistent experience.

In summary, Amazon EC2 is suitable for running applications and workloads in a virtual server environment, offering granular control over the server instances. Amazon WorkSpaces focuses on providing virtual desktops, allowing users to access their desktop environment and applications from multiple devices.

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Advice on Amazon EC2, Amazon WorkSpaces

Craig

Principal Consultant at Rootwork InfoTech LLC

Jul 16, 2020

Decided

We first selected Google Cloud Platform about five years ago, because HIPAA compliance was significantly cheaper and easier on Google compared to AWS. We have stayed with Google Cloud because it provides an excellent command line tool for managing resources, and every resource has a well-designed, well-documented API. SDKs for most of these APIs are available for many popular languages. I have never worked with a cloud platform that's so amenable to automation. Google is also ahead of its competitors in Kubernetes support.

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Comments

Jerome/Zen

Software Engineer

Aug 2, 2020

Needs advice

DigitalOcean was where I began; its USD5/month is extremely competitive and the overall experience as highly user-friendly.

However, their offerings were lacking and integrating with other resources I had on AWS was getting more costly (due to transfer costs on AWS). Eventually I moved the entire project off DO's Droplets and onto AWS's EC2.

One may initially find the cost (w/o free tier) and interface of AWS daunting however with good planning you can achieve highly cost-efficient systems with savings plans, spot instances, etcetera.

Do not dive into AWS head-first! Seriously, don't. Stand back and read pricing documentation thoroughly. You can, not to the fault of AWS, easily go way overbudget. Your first action upon getting your AWS account should be to set up billing alarms for estimated and current bill totals.

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Abigail

Dec 10, 2019

Decided

Most bioinformatics shops nowadays are hosting on AWS or Azure, since they have HIPAA tiers and offer enterprise SLA contracts. Meanwhile Heroku hasn't historically supported HIPAA. Rackspace and Google Cloud would be other hosting providers we would consider, but we just don't get requests for them. So, we mostly focus on AWS and Azure support.

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Detailed Comparison

Amazon EC2	Amazon WorkSpaces
It is a web service that provides resizable compute capacity in the cloud. It is designed to make web-scale computing easier for developers.	With a few clicks in the AWS Management Console, customers can provision a high-quality desktop experience for any number of users at a cost that is highly competitive with traditional desktops and half the cost of most virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) solutions. End-users can access the documents, applications and resources they need with the device of their choice, including laptops, iPad, Kindle Fire, or Android tablets.
Elastic – Amazon EC2 enables you to increase or decrease capacity within minutes, not hours or days. You can commission one, hundreds or even thousands of server instances simultaneously.;Completely Controlled – You have complete control of your instances. You have root access to each one, and you can interact with them as you would any machine.;Flexible – You have the choice of multiple instance types, operating systems, and software packages. Amazon EC2 allows you to select a configuration of memory, CPU, instance storage, and the boot partition size that is optimal for your choice of operating system and application.;Designed for use with other Amazon Web Services – Amazon EC2 works in conjunction with Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3), Amazon Relational Database Service (Amazon RDS), Amazon SimpleDB and Amazon Simple Queue Service (Amazon SQS) to provide a complete solution for computing, query processing and storage across a wide range of applications.;Reliable – Amazon EC2 offers a highly reliable environment where replacement instances can be rapidly and predictably commissioned. The Amazon EC2 Service Level Agreement commitment is 99.95% availability for each Amazon EC2 Region.;Secure – Amazon EC2 works in conjunction with Amazon VPC to provide security and robust networking functionality for your compute resources.;Inexpensive – Amazon EC2 passes on to you the financial benefits of Amazon’s scale. You pay a very low rate for the compute capacity you actually consume.;Easy to Start – Quickly get started with Amazon EC2 by visiting AWS Marketplace to choose preconfigured software on Amazon Machine Images (AMIs). You can quickly deploy this software to EC2 via 1-Click launch or with the EC2 console.	Support Multiple Devices- Users can access their Amazon WorkSpaces using their choice of device, such as a laptop computer (Mac OS or Windows), iPad, Kindle Fire, or Android tablet.;Keep Your Data Secure and Available- Amazon WorkSpaces provides each user with access to persistent storage in the AWS cloud. When users access their desktops using Amazon WorkSpaces, you control whether your corporate data is stored on multiple client devices, helping you keep your data secure.;Choose the Hardware and Software you need- Amazon WorkSpaces offers a choice of bundles providing different amounts of CPU, memory, and storage so you can match your Amazon WorkSpaces to your requirements. Amazon WorkSpaces offers preinstalled applications (including Microsoft Office) or you can bring your own licensed software.;Pay as You Go- Amazon WorkSpaces requires no upfront investment and features pay as you go pricing. With a few clicks, you can provision the number of desktops you require and you pay only for what you use.;Integrate your Corporate Directory- Amazon WorkSpaces securely integrates with your corporate Active Directory so that your users can continue using their existing enterprise credentials to seamlessly access company resources.
Statistics
Stacks 48.6K	Stacks 65
Followers 36.0K	Followers 127
Votes 2.5K	Votes 0
Pros & Cons
Pros 647 Quick and reliable cloud servers 515 Scalability 393 Easy management 277 Low cost 271 Auto-scaling Cons 14 Ui could use a lot of work 6 High learning curve when compared to PaaS 3 Extremely poor CPU performance	No community feedback yet

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