Amazon EC2 hosting
A virtual machine you control completely — which means every operating system decision, and every patch, is yours.
Compute
Chosen per project
Maintainable handover
EC2 is the least opinionated way to run software on AWS. You get a machine, and everything above the hypervisor is your responsibility. That is exactly right for software that will not run on a managed platform, and exactly wrong for a straightforward web application that would run happily on something managed.
Most of the value in an EC2 setup is in the parts nobody sees: the security group that only opens what is needed, the snapshot schedule that has actually been restored from once, and the instance size that matches the load rather than a guess made on day one.
What we build with Amazon EC2
Legacy or licensed software that needs a specific OS configuration
Applications with long-running processes that do not suit serverless
Lift-and-shift of an on-premise server as a first cloud step
Workloads needing GPU or unusual instance types
Where it fits — and where it does not
Good fit when
Software with OS-level dependencies you cannot change
Predictable, steady load where reserved capacity cuts cost
Teams that want full control of the runtime
Consider something else when
Simple web apps — App Runner, Elastic Beanstalk or containers are less work
Spiky traffic, where paying for idle instances is pure waste
Teams with nobody to own OS patching
Who owns what on EC2
The shared responsibility model in practice. Everything above the line is yours — which is the whole trade-off.
Your application
Code, dependencies, configuration.
Runtime and packages
Language versions, libraries, updates.
Operating system
Patching, hardening, users, logging.
AWS: hypervisor and hardware
Physical security, host, network fabric.
How we work with Amazon EC2
Sized from measurement
An instance type chosen after watching real CPU and memory use, then reviewed once the workload settles.
Closed by default
Security groups that open only the ports actually needed, with admin access through a bastion or Session Manager rather than open SSH.
Backups that are tested
Automated snapshots on a retention schedule, and at least one documented restore.
Repeatable builds
Configuration scripted so the machine can be rebuilt rather than nursed.
Our typical Amazon EC2 setup
| Concern | What we use |
|---|---|
| Instances | General purpose, compute or memory optimised, sized from measured load |
| Networking | VPC with private subnets; nothing exposed that need not be |
| Access | SSM Session Manager or a bastion; no open SSH from the internet |
| Backups | Scheduled EBS snapshots with retention and a tested restore |
| Cost | Right-sizing review, plus Savings Plans for steady workloads |
Frequently asked questions
Usually yes at small scale, and the difference buys isolation, control and the ability to grow. If your application would run on managed hosting without changes, that is often the more sensible spend.
Whoever you assign. We can configure automated patching windows and monitoring, or hand over a documented runbook if you have internal IT. What does not work is nobody owning it.
In most cases. A lift-and-shift gets you off ageing hardware quickly; we would then usually recommend a follow-up pass to take advantage of managed services rather than staying on a hand-tended VM forever.
Topics people search for
Services built with Amazon EC2
Cloud Solutions
Hosting designed around what your application actually needs, with the monitoring and backups that make it safe to rely on.
Custom Software Development
Software shaped around the way your business already works, instead of a packaged product you have to reorganise around.
Software Maintenance
Keeping working systems working — including ones built by somebody else.
Enterprise Software Development
Systems for organisations where several departments, sites and approval chains all have to work from the same data.
Tell us what you are trying to build
Describe the problem in plain language and we will tell you what it would take to solve it — the approach, the moving parts and the sensible order to build them in. No obligation either way.