Set Up Linux VM Environment

I need a cloud-hosted Linux environment focused on Compute—think clean, reliable virtual machines that I can spin up quickly for day-to-day development and testing. The exact provider is noted in my brief as “linux cloud,” so I’m flexible and happy to follow your recommendation or proceed with whichever platform you feel will deliver the smoothest experience (AWS EC2, Google Compute Engine, Azure VMs, or a comparable service).

Here’s what I expect:
• A base image (Ubuntu or similar) launched in the cloud and secured with SSH key authentication.
• Clear, reusable steps—Terraform, Ansible playbooks, or a straightforward manual guide—for creating, scaling, and tearing down the instances.
• Basic hardening: firewall rules, user management, swap configuration if needed, and a quick script for package updates.
• A concise hand-off document showing how to log in, modify resources, and monitor instance health.

If you can introduce a consultant forLinux VM setup with these essentials, let’s get started.