diff --git a/contrib/inventory/ec2.ini b/contrib/inventory/ec2.ini
index 50430ce0ed4..93be4c8acb4 100644
--- a/contrib/inventory/ec2.ini
+++ b/contrib/inventory/ec2.ini
@@ -139,3 +139,7 @@ group_by_elasticache_replication_group = True
 # tag Name value matches webservers1*
 # (ex. webservers15, webservers1a, webservers123 etc) 
 # instance_filters = tag:Name=webservers1*
+
+# A boto configuration profile may be used to separate out credentials
+# see http://boto.readthedocs.org/en/latest/boto_config_tut.html
+# boto_profile = some-boto-profile-name
diff --git a/contrib/inventory/ec2.py b/contrib/inventory/ec2.py
index 7ed9b83e777..6fc57f6c95d 100755
--- a/contrib/inventory/ec2.py
+++ b/contrib/inventory/ec2.py
@@ -22,6 +22,12 @@ you need to define:
 
     export EC2_URL=http://hostname_of_your_cc:port/services/Eucalyptus
 
+If you're using boto profiles (requires boto>=2.24.0) you can choose a profile
+using the --boto-profile command line argument (e.g. ec2.py --boto-profile prod) or using
+the AWS_PROFILE variable:
+
+    AWS_PROFILE=prod ansible-playbook -i ec2.py myplaybook.yml
+
 For more details, see: http://docs.pythonboto.org/en/latest/boto_config_tut.html
 
 When run against a specific host, this script returns the following variables:
@@ -148,9 +154,18 @@ class Ec2Inventory(object):
         # Index of hostname (address) to instance ID
         self.index = {}
 
+        # Boto profile to use (if any)
+        self.boto_profile = None
+
         # Read settings and parse CLI arguments
-        self.read_settings()
         self.parse_cli_args()
+        self.read_settings()
+
+        # Make sure that profile_name is not passed at all if not set
+        # as pre 2.24 boto will fall over otherwise
+        if self.boto_profile:
+            if not hasattr(boto.ec2.EC2Connection, 'profile_name'):
+                self.fail_with_error("boto version must be >= 2.24 to use profile")
 
         # Cache
         if self.args.refresh_cache:
@@ -290,8 +305,15 @@ class Ec2Inventory(object):
         else:
             self.all_elasticache_nodes = False
 
+        # boto configuration profile (prefer CLI argument)
+        self.boto_profile = self.args.boto_profile
+        if config.has_option('ec2', 'boto_profile') and not self.boto_profile:
+            self.boto_profile = config.get('ec2', 'boto_profile')
+
         # Cache related
         cache_dir = os.path.expanduser(config.get('ec2', 'cache_path'))
+        if self.boto_profile:
+            cache_dir = os.path.join(cache_dir, 'profile_' + self.boto_profile)
         if not os.path.exists(cache_dir):
             os.makedirs(cache_dir)
 
@@ -373,6 +395,8 @@ class Ec2Inventory(object):
                            help='Get all the variables about a specific instance')
         parser.add_argument('--refresh-cache', action='store_true', default=False,
                            help='Force refresh of cache by making API requests to EC2 (default: False - use cache files)')
+        parser.add_argument('--boto-profile', action='store',
+                           help='Use boto profile for connections to EC2')
         self.args = parser.parse_args()
 
 
@@ -399,7 +423,25 @@ class Ec2Inventory(object):
             conn = boto.connect_euca(host=self.eucalyptus_host)
             conn.APIVersion = '2010-08-31'
         else:
-            conn = ec2.connect_to_region(region)
+            conn = self.connect_to_aws(ec2, region)
+        return conn
+
+    def boto_fix_security_token_in_profile(self, connect_args):
+        ''' monkey patch for boto issue boto/boto#2100 '''
+        profile = 'profile ' + self.boto_profile
+        if boto.config.has_option(profile, 'aws_security_token'):
+            connect_args['security_token'] = boto.config.get(profile, 'aws_security_token')
+        return connect_args
+
+    def connect_to_aws(self, module, region):
+        connect_args = {}
+
+        # only pass the profile name if it's set (as it is not supported by older boto versions)
+        if self.boto_profile:
+            connect_args['profile_name'] = self.boto_profile
+            self.boto_fix_security_token_in_profile(connect_args)
+
+        conn = module.connect_to_region(region, **connect_args)
         # connect_to_region will fail "silently" by returning None if the region name is wrong or not supported
         if conn is None:
             self.fail_with_error("region name: %s likely not supported, or AWS is down.  connection to region failed." % region)
@@ -435,7 +477,7 @@ class Ec2Inventory(object):
         region '''
 
         try:
-            conn = rds.connect_to_region(region)
+            conn = self.connect_to_aws(rds, region)
             if conn:
                 instances = conn.get_all_dbinstances()
                 for instance in instances:
diff --git a/docsite/rst/intro_dynamic_inventory.rst b/docsite/rst/intro_dynamic_inventory.rst
index 5b634d86cd9..1a2bd6f72c3 100644
--- a/docsite/rst/intro_dynamic_inventory.rst
+++ b/docsite/rst/intro_dynamic_inventory.rst
@@ -101,6 +101,20 @@ You can test the script by itself to make sure your config is correct::
 
 After a few moments, you should see your entire EC2 inventory across all regions in JSON.
 
+If you use boto profiles to manage multiple AWS accounts, you can pass ``--profile PROFILE`` name to the ``ec2.py`` script. An example profile might be::
+
+    [profile dev]
+    aws_access_key_id = <dev access key>
+    aws_secret_access_key = <dev secret key>
+
+    [profile prod]
+    aws_access_key_id = <prod access key>
+    aws_secret_access_key = <prod secret key>
+
+You can then run ``ec2.py --profile prod`` to get the inventory for the prod account, or run playbooks with: ``ansible-playbook -i 'ec2.py --profile prod' myplaybook.yml``.
+
+Alternatively, use the ``AWS_PROFILE`` variable - e.g. ``AWS_PROFILE=prod ansible-playbook -i ec2.py myplaybook.yml``
+
 Since each region requires its own API call, if you are only using a small set of regions, feel free to edit ``ec2.ini`` and list only the regions you are interested in. There are other config options in ``ec2.ini`` including cache control, and destination variables.
 
 At their heart, inventory files are simply a mapping from some name to a destination address. The default ``ec2.ini`` settings are configured for running Ansible from outside EC2 (from your laptop for example) -- and this is not the most efficient way to manage EC2.