What is AWS? Amazon Web Services Introduction

Amazon Web Services is the world’s most trending and best-suited cloud platform, offering more than 175 fully-featured services. From the fastest-growing startups to the largest enterprises, leading government agencies, and there are millions of customers using the AWS platform to handle their data perfectly and grow their business without any hassle. 

If you are not aware of what is AWS? How it helps businesses? Then this bog is for you. We have designed this blog for beginners to give an introduction to Amazon Web Services.

What is Amazon Web Services - Overview

In this Amazon Web Services blog, you will learn the below topics

What is AWS? - Introduction History of AWS AWS Services Applications of AWS services Benefits of using AWS

So, let us begin with the AWS definition first, which I am going to talk about in the section below.

What is AWS? - Introduction to AWS

Amazon Web Services (AWS)  is a cloud computing platform provided by Amazon. AWS services can offer an organization tools such as database storage, compute power, content delivery, and other user-friendly functionality services. to help businesses grow and perform better. 

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AWS is segregated into 25 global regions having multiple availability zones along with its server. These divided regions allow users to choose geographical limits for their services. AWS holds 31% of the global cloud market share and has a considerable server capacity. It offers flexible AWS pricing, which means a user has to pay money for the hours he/she rented it.

For in-depth understanding read our AWS Tutorial For Beginners blog

History of Amazon Web Services

AWS platform was launched in the year 2002, and after that, it kept on evolving and offering services to Its customers without fail. As of now in 2020, it has a total of 25 geographical regions. With time, it keeps on growing and fulfilling customers’ demands in the best possible way.

• 2002- AWS services launched
• 2004- SQS was launched
• 2006- Launched its cloud products
• 2012- Holds first customer event
• 2015- Reveals revenues achieved of $4.6 billion
• 2016- Surpassed $10 billion revenue target
• 2016- Release snowball and snowmobile
• 2019- Offers nearly 175 services

Related Article: Most Popular AWS Services

What are the Services Provided by AWS?

AWS has more than 175 services to offer its clients which is much more than the services provided by other cloud service providers. In this article, we would be covering some of the critical AWS services that are categorized under the following domains.

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#1. Compute

Services under the computing domain in AWS are all about high-end servers that are used to host a website, process backend data, etc. 

Let us have a look at some of the essential services under compute domain:

i. EC2

AWS EC2 (Elastic Compute Cloud) offers you a server with desired OS, RAM, and processor where you have full control of OS to perform any operation.

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ii. Lambda

Under lambda service, the user does not have full access to the OS and cannot host a website. It is used only for backend processing where it can receive the request, process it, and send back the result.

Related Article: Amazon AWS Lambda Tutorial

iii. Elastic Beanstalk

In AWS Elastic Beanstalk, the user gets a dashboard to upload websites. It is a Platform as a service, so the user does not have full access to the OS.

iv. Elastic Load Balancer

AWS load balancer balances the load among servers that are deployed at a particular instance. There are three types of load balancers -

• Classic load balancer: balances traffic among servers
• Application load balancer: balances traffic based on URL of applications
• Network load balancer: Balances traffic based on web protocol (HTTP, FTP, etc.)

v. Autoscaling

Autoscaling helps to increase or decrease the number of servers needed based on requirements for operation such as CPU usage, memory usage, network throughput, etc.

Related Article: Lambda Interview Questions

#2. Storage

AWS offers storage plenty of choices to users for backing up information, archiving, and disaster recovery. Let us have a look at the list of the main services available under the storage domain on the AWS Cloud.

i. S3

Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3) stores files in the form of objects with a maximum size of 5 TB each.

ii. Glacier

AWS Glacier provides low-cost, flexible, durable, secure storage for data backup and archival where customers can store data for as little as $0.004 per GB per month.

iii. Cloudfront

Amazon CloudFront speeds up the distribution of static and dynamic web content and delivers it through data centers called edge locations with the lowest latency.

iv. Elastic File System

AWS EFS (Elastic File System) is used to mount shared drives among multiple servers in real-time.

v. Storage Gateway

AWS Storage Gateway helps users to access or store data on AWS with the lowest latency possible. 

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#3. Database

In this domain, AWS provides services that can help you monitor and manage your databases in the AWS infrastructure for better productivity. Services under Database are-

i. RDS

Amazon RDS (relational database service) is a service that manages your relational databases and keeps your information updated.

ii. DynamoDB

DynamoDB supports key-value and document data along with point-in-time recovery and on-demand backup.

iii. ElasticCache

AWS ElastiCache improves the performance of the application by caching the frequently required or queried data.

iv. RedShift

Amazon Redshift is a data warehouse service that offers mission-critical analysis for companies.

#4. Migration

This domain deals with the transferring of data to and from the AWS infrastructure. There is a service called snowball used when you need to transfer your considerable data to the AWS infrastructure physically. For this, you will receive a physical device sent by AWS to your location, and you have to upload your data on it and send it back to the AWS office. 

Related Article: AWS Solution Architect Interview Questions

#5. Networking and content delivery

AWS offers the highest network availability amongst all cloud service providers to increase throughput with on-time content delivery and reduced network latency.

i. VPC

AWS VPC (Virtual private Cloud) allows users to launch their AWS resources into a virtual network.

ii. Direct Connect

AWS direct connect makes it easier to establish a network connection from the user's premises to AWS that reduces network costs and increases bandwidth throughput.

iii. Route 53

Amazon Route 53 is a scalable cloud DNS web service designed to offer a reliable way to route users to internet applications.

#6. Management Tools

Using these tools, you can manage all of your AWS resources on AWS infrastructure. There are some of the services given below that users can use to control and secure their data from getting into unauthorized hands.

Related Article: AWS Management Console

i. CloudWatch

AWS CloudWatch is a monitoring service that helps in monitoring the AWS account and resources in it.

ii. CloudFormation

AWS CloudFormation allows us to create a bunch of AWS resources through a single click. Using this tool, we can create a large architecture with a few clicks.

iii. CloudTrail

AWS CloudTrail provides event history on each and every AWS account-related activity along with auditing, compliance monitoring, and governance,

iv. OpsWorks

AWS OpsWorks helps in managing and configuring servers on AWS using Chef and Puppet. 

Related Article: Azure vs AWS

#7. Security and Identity Compliance

This domain deals with user rights and authenticity. Services under this domain will help you manage what access should be given to which person in your organization or team. With the below-given services, a user can give needed access to the employees and secure his/her data.

i. IAM

AWS IAM (Identity and Access Management) allows users to access the resources in the AWS ecosystem.

ii. KMS

AWS KMS (Key Management System) helps users to create and manage security keys to keep their data safe and secure.

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What are the Applications of AWS Services?

• Website hosting
• Search Engines
• Social Networking
• Academic Computing
• Media Sharing (Image/ Video)
• Mobile and Social Applications
• Application hosting/SaaS hosting
• Development and test environments
• Content delivery and Media Distribution
• Storage, backup, and disaster recovery

Related Article: What is AWS AMI

What are the Major Benefits of Using AWS Services?

It offers cost-effective services where you have to pay only for what you use. There are no long-term or upfront commitments. 

• Users do not have to worry about the maintenance or running of data centers.
• Offers faster deployments.
• Offers high scalability, users can extend or reduce the capacity as per requirement.
• Users can deploy their applications in several regions across the world within just a few clicks.
• It allows organizations/companies to use already known operating systems, databases, programming models, and architectures.

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Conclusion

AWS is a subsidiary of Amazon that offers cloud computing services to individuals, companies, and governments. It is comprised of more than 165 services including storage, computing, networking, deployment, developer tools for the internet of things, and many more. 

Hope you liked reading the article. If you have any queries, please drop the question in the comment box.