# Overview

* It provides **scalable computing capacity in AWS**.<br>
* Benefits:
  * **No need to invest in hardware upfront**.

    * So you can develop and deploy applications faster.

  * **Launch as many or as few virtual servers as you need**, configure security and networking, and manage storage.<br>

  * **Scale up or down to handle changes in requirements** or spikes in popularity, reducing your need to forecast traffic.

## Instance Metadata

* **Data about your instance that you can use to configure or manage the running instance**.<br>
* It is divided into categories, for example, host name, events, and security groups.<br>
* Provides an endpoint in every EC2 instance at **`http://169.254.169.254/latest/meta-data`** which gives applications running in the instance access to environmental information.