I'm trying to get started with Amazon's EC2.
I have to choose an image (AMI) to start with. I've settled on using the official Ubuntu AMI, but I have two options for the root store - "instant" or "ebs". (See this page).
Being new to AWS, I'm not sure I really understand the difference. What do the two options mean, and what are the pros/cons of each?
I recommend EBS, but it really depends on your scenario. Our company uses EBS specifically for the following reasons (ripped off from http://LabSlice.com/FAQ at the bottom):
"The EBS-backed machines are faster to load, can be stopped and can be taken a snapshot of in a matter of minutes. They support the newer Micro instances sizes (only 2 cents/hr) and in many cases will be of lower cost to run for typical LabSlice usage profiles. All these benefits made us decide to support only the EBS-backed AMIs."