So far, all we have worked with are Linux instances, so the next step that I recommend is that you go ahead and deploy your very first Windows server instance as well. Just a few pointers worth remembering are to make sure you enable the firewall rule for RDP protocol (TCP Port 3389) in the security group and to generate the administrator password using the key pair that you create. For more in-depth steps, check out this simple tutorial at http://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/WindowsGuide/EC2Win_GetStarted.html.
The second thing worth trying out are spot instances. Now, you may be wondering that spot instances seem kind of hard to grasp, but in reality they are a lot easier and cost efficient to work with. Try and spin up a simple t2.micro Linux instance using spot pricing and compare the difference with a traditional on-demand instance. To know more about spot instances, check out http://aws.amazon.com/ec2/purchasing-options/spot-instances/.
Another really cool thing worth the time and effort is the AWS Management Portal for vCenter! Yes! You heard it right! You can actually manage your AWS resources using your standard VMware vCenter Server! All you need to do is install a simple plugin and, voila, your entire AWS infrastructure can be managed using the familiar vCenter dashboard. But the fun doesn't just stop there. You can also export your on premise virtual machines hosted on the vSphere platform over to AWS using a tool called as VM Import/ Export. Once installed within your VMware vSphere environment, you can easily migrate any Linux and Windows Server based virtual machine to your AWS account using a few simple steps! Now that's really amazing! To know more about the AWS Management Portal for vCenter, refer to http://aws.amazon.com/ec2/vcenter-portal/.
And last but not least, have some fun with configuring your instances! Don't stop just at a simple Web Server; go ahead and set up a full fledge WordPress application on your instances or launch multiple instances and set up JBoss Clustering among them and so on. The more you configure and use the instances, the more you will get acquainted with the terms and terminologies and find out how easy it is working with AWS! Just remember to clean up your work after it is done.