executing applications in the cloud

Question

Hi,

Lately I have been working with predictive analytics and in many cases my PC runs out of memory. For the analysis I use several tools such as Matlab, custom algorithms written in c++ or C#.

Anyway I was thinking about running these algorithms in the cloud but so far I haven't got any experiences from cloud computing or server administration. I would be very thankful if anyone of you briefly explained the possibilities for setting-up the environment and running the aplications in the cloud. Is it possible to purchase a virtual machine with specified CPU power, memory, hard disk and operating system? What is the best option for running custom applications in a cloud?

Thank you!

Answer 1

If I were you I would use Amazon EC2. You can rent virtualized servers by the hour, and you can pick a high memory instance if that's what you need.

1/ Go to http://aws.amazon.com/ec2 and sign up for an EC2 account

2/ Go to https://console.aws.amazon.com/ec2/home to use the EC2 console.

3/ Pick an appropriate instance type: http://aws.amazon.com/ec2/instance-types/

4/ Setup an EC2 key pair via the console GUI - this allows you to log into the machine.

5/ Start your instance and start working.

If you run into trouble there are lots of documentation at http://aws.amazon.com/documentation/ and an AWS users forum at http://developer.amazonwebservices.com/connect/forumindex.jspa .