Touted as the most complete and widely used cloud platform in the world, Amazon Web Services (AWS) has become a giant component of Amazon’s business portfolio. Just as Amazon.com rocked the online commerce market, AWS rocked the computing world.
Amazon Web Services, which includes several cloud computing products and services such as servers, storage, and networking, has become the leader in cloud computing platforms, eclipsing competitors such as Microsoft Azure.
In short, AWS is a cash cow for Amazon. But what is Amazon Web Services? What is cloud computing?
What is Amazon Web Services?
Amazon Web Services (AWS), a subsidiary of Amazon.com, offers affordable cloud computing services to strengthen your customer base – from small businesses like Pinterest to large enterprises like D-Link.
Cloud computing is the use of remote servers on the Internet to store, manage, and process data, rather than a local server or personal computer. Cloud computing falls into three main categories, starting with Software as a Service (SaaS), which cuts a company’s costs by providing a cloud server with software already included.
Platform as a Service (PaaS) allows developers to build applications and collaborate on different projects without having to buy or maintain infrastructure.
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Finally, we have Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), which AWS is more of than others. IaaS gives companies the ability to rent servers, storage, security, and more from a cloud provider.
Amazon Web Services
Amazon Web Services
Amazon Web Services provides customers with a wide range of cloud services. Some of the options offered are Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2), Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3), Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (VPC), Amazon SimpleDB, and Amazon WorkSpaces.
- Amazon EC2 provides virtual compute environments that offer affordable scalable compute power in the AWS Cloud. EC2 eliminates the need to invest in hardware, allowing customers to develop and deploy applications at a faster pace.
- Amazon S3 is used to store and retrieve data anytime from anywhere in the world. web. It is a reliable, scalable, and affordable storage infrastructure that benefits large enterprises.
- Amazon VPC is a virtual datacenter-like network you create that uses AWS’s scalable infrastructure. With Amazon VPC, you can launch your resources stored in an AWS environment into this virtual network without the need to buy software or infrastructure.
- Amazon SimpleDB is a NoSQL data warehouse that takes the burden off database administration. A developer can store and query various data items by requesting web services with the confidence that SimpleDB will do the job.
- Amazon WorkSpaces works like another form of cloud computing, Desktop as a Service (DaaS). This gives you a secure desktop solution using a Windows or Linux operating system. The service can then be scaled to provide virtual desktops to employees around the world.
The AWS Benefits
AWS Features
Cost
In the past, companies had to physically build and maintain storage for large amounts of data. The decision to store data in the cloud came with significant costs in addition to lengthy contracts that could hinder the company’s growth. Buying more space than you need can become too costly, and buying too little can be disastrous.
The same principle applies to computing power. Maintaining business during peak hours required companies to buy more energy. The problem was during off-peak times when electricity was no longer needed. The company will still have to pay for electricity it doesn’t even use.
AWS allows companies to pay only for what they use. Without upfront storage and infrastructure costs, you no longer need to evaluate usage versus cost. AWS automatically scales costs based on customer needs.
Scalability
Startups and small businesses are reaping clear benefits from the scalability that Amazon Web Services offers. Costs vary based on customer usage, making AWS a great choice for building bottom-up businesses. This business will get all the tools it needs to build a cloud startup.
Established businesses will benefit from Amazon’s low-cost migration services to seamlessly migrate infrastructure to AWS.
AWS continues to provide resources to help you grow as your business continues to grow through flexible business use models. Customers no longer need to go back to discussing whether their current budget is needed to use a computer. In some cases, when it comes to AWS scalability, a company may use AWS to “set and forget.”
Security and reliability
AWS servers are located in 76 Availability Zones covering 245 countries and territories. These zones have been segregated not only to provide users with a choice of geographic restrictions for their services, but also to diversify physical locations, provide greater security and prevent permanent data loss around the world.
Every data center around the world is maintained and monitored continuously. Amazon Web Services is arguably much safer than a company hosting its own website or storage. This is because localizing data in one easily identifiable location can be vulnerable.
AWS only provides access to its physical data centers when needed. This, in addition to the fact that these places are hidden from the public, creates a stronger barrier to physical intrusion. Crashes and potential attacks on servers are also safer thanks to Amazon’s cloud expertise. With 24/7 close monitoring, any attack can be quickly detected and dealt with by a single IT specialist.
Choose Amazon Web Services
Built by the global leader in online commerce, Amazon Web Services removes the guesswork and scientific analysis needed to determine your infrastructure needs. A flexible pay-as-you-go model benefits startups looking for a cheaper start-up option. While established businesses continue to expand, hundreds and thousands of customers use AWS in over 190 countries.
AWS training and certification has also become a highly sought after and requested validation by professionals and organizations looking for innovative teams for cloud initiatives.
AWS is not without its shortcomings, most notably EC2 resource constraints from region to region by default and other common cloud computing issues such as server downtime and limited control.
However, choosing Amazon Web Services provides easy-to-use cloud computing without capacity constraints in a cost-effective, reliable and secure platform.
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