The significance of Amazon Lightsail
Amazon Web Services ( AWS ) is a cloud computing platform which runs on a paid subscription basis for companies, individuals, and other entities for computing, storage, application deployment, analytics, and many more services.
Amazon Lightsail is a cloud service offered by AWS for storing vast amounts of cloud storage for new or inexperienced cloud users. It includes a static IP address, a management console, secure shell terminal access, key management, Domain Name Server (DNS) management, and server monitoring.
In this article, we will learn about the significance of Amazon Lightsail, features, benefits, and cost price. Before we learn about Amazon Lightsail, let’s gain some knowledge on a virtual private server (VPS).
Introduction to Virtual private server ( VPS )
Virtual private server ( VPS ) is a software that generates the virtual server through which it allocates some part of server resources to the virtual machine through the web. Each virtual machine has its own operating system installation through which you have complete access for administration.
Each virtual server can work independently on a physical server or shared hosting. The user should setup VPS before installing Lightsail to get access to use. Amazon Lightsail is not directly visible through AWS management console without VPS.
There are 2 types of VPS, and they are as follows.
- Managed VPS
- Unmanaged VPS
Managed Virtual private server ( VPS ):
Managed VPS provides a perfect hosting experience where the client should only install the software and gets the access to hardware, networking, virtualization, operating system, and control panel software issues.
Unmanaged Virtual private server ( VPS):
Unmanaged VPS provides a simple hosting experience where the client is responsible for installing, configuring, and upgrading software.
What is Amazon Lightsail?
Amazon Lightsail is a new Virtual Private Service of Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud. It includes a Virtual Machine, SSD-based storage, data transfer, DNS management, and a static IP. It has memory ranging from 512MB-8GB with processors ranging from 1 or 2 cores and transfers data allowance from 1-5 TB. It has 20-80 GB storage allowance. It is a multiplatform ( works on different operating systems). For example, on Linux Operating system, it offers Linux Virtual Machines (VM) to distribute as a guest operating system for storage.
Features of Amazon Lightsail:
The features of Amazon Lightsail areas listed below:
- Lightsail virtual private server
- Application Programming Interface (API): Amazon provides with a powerful API to develop your applications or integrate with external applications.
- Access to AWS services: It is easy to extend the capabilities of Lightsail to AWS services with the managed database, CDN, and many more.
- Secure Shell (SSH) access: Lightsail provides with a web-based option to connect over SSH.
- Secure Networking: Configuring the details of the network through the AWS is easy and secure. We can access through IP address, DNS, firewall, and more.
- Simplified load leveling: To distribute traffic across multiple instances, load levels are added to the user application.
- Snapshots: For protecting your information, use snapshots for 0.05 USD/month.
- Multiplatform: It runs on Linux, Windows and many more devices.
- High storage: It consists of high-performing, persistent SSSD storage.
- Easy management
What are the benefits of using Amazon Lightsail?
The benefits of Amazon Lightsail areas listed below:
- Simplified user interface
It runs through preinstalled software with the server. There will be less confusion for users who are using for the first time.
- Familiarity
Developers and companies who use Amazon Lightsail for web hosting and application development will find more alluring.
- Scaling
It gets updated with plenty of options your applications needed with time to time with
advanced features like managed databases, delivery network, and more.
- Affordability
The subscription is free for the first month and the plan starts with $5/month for the cheapest grade.
- Built on world’s leading cloud
Amazon lightsail runs on reliable AWS services cloud worldwide through millions of
Customers.
- Reliability
The chances for replacement instances are very rare as the services run through Amazon infrastructure and data centers.
What is the difference between Amazon Lightsail and Elastic Compute Cloud ( EC2)?
The two solutions offered by Amazon Web Services ( AWS ) are Amazon Lightsail and Elastic Compute Cloud ( EC2 ). So, let’s compare Lightsail and EC2.
Amazon Lightsail | Amazon EC2 |
1. Lightsail is used for simple web applications. | 1. EC2 is used for enterprise applications. |
2. It is used for websites including WordPress, custom code, and e-commerce. | 2. It is used for Big data, HPC, and Analytics workloads. |
3. It is a single server business software. | 3. It works on multiple servers, migrations from an on-premises environment, including BYOL. |
4. It is used for development and test environments. | 4. It is used for application development. |
What is the difference between Amazon Lightsail and Digitalocean?
Digitalocean is the new cloud storage software that has entered recently in the market as a competitor to Amazon Web Services ( AWS ). So, let’s compare Amazon Lightsail and digital ocean.
Digitalocean | Amazon Lightsail |
|
1.Amazon Lightsail costs for every decent response time of Service Legal Agreement ( SLA ). |
2. Bandwidth coverage costs are lower $0.02/gb. | 2. Bandwidth coverage costs are higher $0.09/gb. |
3. It deploys a large selection of base operating system images. | 3. It supports only Ubuntu and Amazon Linux. |
4. It has a specific data center locations. | 4. It has more data center locations compared over time. |
5. It has a large and active community. | 5. It’s quite less compared to the digital ocean. |
6. 1110 companies on StackShare use the digital ocean.
Eg: TechStars, Choos. |
6. Only 5 companies use amazon lightsail on the stock share.
Eg: Albee’s, Datary. |
How much does Amazon Lightsail cost?
The cost price of Amazon Lightsail varies for different operating systems. Let’s have a look at the prices for different OSs (Windows and Linux/Unix).
For Linux/Unix
PRICE | MEMORY | PROCESSOR | SSD Disk | TRANSFER |
$3.50 USD | 512 MB | 1 core | 20 GB | 1 TB |
$5 USD | 1 GB | 1 core | 40 GB | 2 TB |
$10 USD | 2 GB | 1 core | 60 GB | 3 TB |
$20 USD | 4 GB | 2 core | 80 GB | 4 TB |
$40 USD | 8 GB | 2 core | 160 GB | 5 TB |
$80 USD | 16 GB | 4 core | 320 GB | 6 TB |
$160 USD | 32 GB | 8 core | 640 GB | 7 TB |
For windows
PRICE | MEMORY | PROCESSOR | SSD Disk | TRANSFER |
$8 USD | 512 MB | 1 core | 30 GB | 1 TB |
$12 USD | 1 GB | 1 core | 40 GB | 2 TB |
$20 USD | 2 GB | 1 core | 60 GB | 3 TB |
$40 USD | 4 GB | 2 core | 80 GB | 4 TB |
$70 USD | 8 GB | 2 core | 160 GB | 5 TB |
$120 USD | 16 GB | 4 core | 320 GB | 6 TB |
$240 USD | 32 GB | 8 core | 640 GB | 7 TB |
Conclusion:
In this article, we have studied Amazon Lightsail resources, features, and its benefits. It is mostly used by initial developers, startups, and small scale production sites based on their usage, and storage allowance. Hope you have got all the information required.