Go to the AWS console and launch one. It's pretty much as simple as it can be. They automatically use EBS so they're persistent. No special configuration required.
- we are hosting a little software load balancer for web services and it definitely does not need more than that
- thanks to the web service api of Amazon, it is relatively easy to set automated recovery plans, and the idea is very attractive, but until now I was detterred by the price.
- for small web applications with low bandwith, the price is good. For reserved instances, for one year, you pay 54$ up front, then 87.6$ for usage for the whole year, for a total of 141.6. That's a lot less than renting a server at linode.com for a year (~220$).