1. AWS Documentation
EC2 User Guide for Linux Instances
"Amazon Machine Images (AMI)" section. It states
"An Amazon Machine Image (AMI) is a supported and maintained image provided by AWS that provides the information required to launch an instance... An AMI includes the following: A template for the root volume for the instance (for example
an operating system
an application server
and applications)."
2. AWS Documentation
EC2 User Guide for Linux Instances
"Amazon EBS volumes" section. It defines an EBS volume as
"a durable
block-level storage device that you can attach to a single EC2 instance."
3. AWS Documentation
CloudFormation User Guide
"What is AWS CloudFormation?" section. It describes CloudFormation as a service to "model and set up your Amazon Web Services resources... You create a template that describes all the AWS resources that you want." This highlights its role in orchestrating multiple resources
not being the instance image itself.
4. AWS Documentation
EC2 User Guide for Linux Instances
"Amazon EBS snapshots" section. This page explains
"You can back up the data on your Amazon EBS volumes to Amazon S3 by taking point-in-time snapshots." This clarifies its function as a backup mechanism.