EC2 Feature Announcement: Static IP Addresses

AWS announced three key EC2 features: static IP addresses (Elastic IPs), availability zones for high availability, and user-selectable kernels. This update addressed core scalability pains in the beta service. Elastic IPs allowed instant reassociation to new instances.

Significance

It enabled reliable, production-grade cloud deployments, cementing EC2's viability for mission-critical apps and accelerating AWS adoption.