The flexible nature of Amazon EC2 enables developers to control the spikes in demand or traffic. For instance, when computing requirements change unexpectedly (go up or down) Amazon EC2 instantly respond. That way, you are able to control how much you are willing to spend at any given time, which is very important during tough economic times when every penny is worth saving.

For some time now, developers had no control on the amount of resources to invest when computing. This is because of unexpected surge in requirements or traffic. However, Amazon EC2 enables you to gauge yourself easily by leveraging benefits of massive scale with no performance compromises or upfront investment. This is contrary to traditional hosting services, which usually give fixed number of resources for a specific period. This limits your ability to respond when their usage is unpredictable or changes rapidly. Moreover, you can do nothing even when their usage experiences massive peaks unexpectedly.