http://aws.amazon.com/ec2/#pricing
I can’t understand this. What is an instance? (“On-Demand Instances let you pay for compute capacity by the hour with no long-term commitments.”)
Does this mean that I can use whole as my VMware server:
(Extra Large Instance)
15 GB memory
8 EC2 Compute Units (4 virtual cores with 2 EC2 Compute Units each)
1,690 GB instance storage
64-bit platform
I/O Performance: High
API name: m1.xlarge
For $0.96 per hour?
Or does it mean only like one operation or something? What is that instance exactly?
An instance signifies an operating system instance (a virtual machine). By using virtualization, Amazon (and cloud providers in general) offer you a virtualized environment where OS instances are running. You have full control over that operating system inside that environment. Per hour means that you pay that much for using your OS instance resources for a single hour. I believe that page has almost all the details about pricing.