diff --git a/planetstack/ec2_observer/aws_lib.py b/planetstack/ec2_observer/aws_lib.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e116295
--- /dev/null
+++ b/planetstack/ec2_observer/aws_lib.py
@@ -0,0 +1,18 @@
+import os
+import json
+
+class AwsException(Exception):
+	pass
+
+def aws_run(cmd):
+	cmd = 'aws %s'%cmd
+	pipe = os.popen(cmd)
+	output_str = pipe.read()
+
+	if (not pipe.close()):
+		output = json.loads(output_str)
+		return output
+	else:
+		raise AwsException("Error running command: %s"%cmd)
+
+