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 6af748f9186..d34291f2566 100755
--- a/contrib/inventory/ec2.py
+++ b/contrib/inventory/ec2.py
@@ -318,6 +318,11 @@ class Ec2Inventory(object):
         self.cache_path_index = cache_dir + "/ansible-ec2.index"
         self.cache_max_age = config.getint('ec2', 'cache_max_age')
 
+        # boto configuration profile
+        self.boto_profile = None
+        if config.has_option('ec2', 'boto_profile'):
+            self.boto_profile = config.get('ec2', 'boto_profile')
+
         # Configure nested groups instead of flat namespace.
         if config.has_option('ec2', 'nested_groups'):
             self.nested_groups = config.getboolean('ec2', 'nested_groups')
@@ -452,7 +457,7 @@ class Ec2Inventory(object):
                 for filter_key, filter_values in self.ec2_instance_filters.items():
                     reservations.extend(conn.get_all_instances(filters = { filter_key : filter_values }))
             else:
-                conn = self.connect_to_aws(ec2, region)
+                conn = ec2.connect_to_region(region, profile_name=self.boto_profile)
 
             # connect_to_region will fail "silently" by returning None if the region name is wrong or not supported
             if conn is None: