Simple Application Server:Comparison with Elastic Compute Service (ECS)

Feature

Simple Application Server (SAS)

Elastic Compute Service (ECS)

Target audience

Individual developers and students.

Individuals or businesses with technical expertise.

Use cases

Suitable for lightweight applications with low traffic:

• Website building

• Knowledge and productivity management

• Cloud-based learning environments

• E-commerce sites

• Forums and communities

• Development environment setup

Covers all business scenarios. Typical use cases include:

• General web applications

• Online gaming

• Big data analytics

• Deep learning

Advantages

• Quick start

  The service provides various Application Images in addition to basic operating system images. These images let you quickly build a website or an operations environment. SAS also integrates with common cloud services, such as Domain Name Resolution and HTTPS encryption.

• Flexible scaling

  You can upgrade to a plan with higher specifications. You can also smoothly migrate your server data to an ECS instance for more flexible resource configurations.

• Simple operations

  Provides essential management tools, including Remote Logon, Server Monitoring, Firewall Configuration, Data Backup and migration, Application Management, and Operation Logs.

• Cost-effective

  Cloud resources are offered in packages, which ensures predictable costs.

• Offers a wide variety of instance types and supports flexible resizing for different scenarios.

• Supports multiple billing methods.

• Provides extensive APIs.

• You can scale instances and bandwidth up or down at any time, and expand `Cloud Disks`.

• Provides comprehensive security and industry-specific solutions.

Limits

• Does not support installing virtualization software or enabling `Nested Virtualization`.

• Does not support sound card applications.

• Has certain limitations on internal network connectivity. For more information, see Regions and Network Connectivity.

• Only supports attaching one Data Disk.

• Does not support IPv6 address configuration.

• Does not support advanced ECS features such as deployment sets, Resource Orchestration, Auto Scaling, and Resource Groups.

For more information about the limits of SAS, see Limits.

• `Nested Virtualization` is supported only on `Elastic Compute Service Bare Metal Instances` and Super Computing Clusters.

• Does not support sound card applications.

For more information about the limits of ECS, see Limits.

Billing

Plans and Data Disks can only be purchased on a Subscription basis. Traffic that exceeds the plan's quota is billed on a Pay-as-you-go basis.

Supports Subscription, Pay-as-you-go, and Preemptible Instance billing methods. The Pay-as-you-go method can be combined with Reserved Instance Vouchers, Savings Plans, and Storage Capacity Units (SCUs) to balance cost optimization and flexibility over the long term.

Network

• Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) resources are created automatically. A non-changeable public IP address is configured by default upon instance creation.

• A simple firewall controls network access.

• Bandwidth is specified in the plan and cannot be customized.

• Supports internal network communication. For more information, see Manage VPC Connection.

Allows you to plan and maintain your own network to meet complex business requirements. For example:

• Plan your private network by using features such as VPC and vSwitches.

• Control traffic by using features such as Security Groups and network ACLs.

• Connect to the internet by using features such as Elastic IP Addresses (EIPs) and NAT Gateways.

Image

Only supports the Application Images and System Images provided by the service, or Custom Images created from SAS instances. These images cover most common use cases.

Offers a wide variety of images, including Public Images, Custom Images, Shared Images, and Marketplace Images. This meets the needs of various users for rapid deployment and flexible management of their application environments.