Amazon Web Services (AWS) is a cloud computing platform offered by Amazon.com. It provides a complete set of cloud computing infrastructure services such as storage, processing, databases, analytics, artificial intelligence, Internet of Things and more.
AWS is one of the world leaders in cloud services, offering solutions for businesses of all sizes and industries. Its services are designed to be highly scalable, flexible, and secure, allowing businesses to leverage the cloud to run high-availability and high-performance applications, websites, and services.
The AWS platform offers a wide range of services, including:
- Cloud computing: Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2), Amazon Elastic Container Service (ECS), AWS Lambda, among others.
- Cloud storage: Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3), Amazon Elastic Block Store (EBS), Amazon Glacier, among others.
- Cloud database: Amazon Relational Database Service (RDS), Amazon DynamoDB, Amazon Redshift, among others.
- Cloud networking: Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (VPC), Amazon Route 53, Amazon CloudFront, among others.
- Cloud security: AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM), Amazon Inspector, AWS Certificate Manager, among others.
- Cloud analytics: Amazon Athena, Amazon Elastic MapReduce (EMR), Amazon Kinesis, among others.
- Cloud artificial intelligence: Amazon Lex, Amazon Polly, Amazon Rekognition, among others.
AWS is widely used by businesses around the world to host web applications, manage large volumes of data, provide media streaming services, and more. Companies can pay for AWS services based on usage, which means they can scale their cloud computing resources according to their needs and reduce costs when usage decreases.
The AWS platform has become increasingly popular in recent years as businesses seek to take advantage of the benefits of the cloud. AWS is one of many cloud service options available on the market, but its wide range of services, high performance, and security are some of the reasons why it stands out.
Compute services
AWS computing services offer a wide range of options for hosting, managing, and running applications and services in cloud computing environments. Here are some of the main functions of these services:
- Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2): Allows you to create and manage virtual server instances to run applications and services.
- AWS Lambda: Offers a serverless computing platform that allows you to run code without the need to manage servers.
- Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service (EKS): Provides a managed service for running and orchestrating containers using Kubernetes.
- Amazon Elastic Container Service (ECS): Allows you to run and manage application containers in the cloud.
- AWS Batch: Allows you to run batch jobs at scale and manage the computing resources needed to run them.
These AWS computing services help businesses scale their computing resources according to the needs of their applications and services, reducing the need to manage physical server infrastructure and providing flexibility to increase or decrease capacity as needed.
Storage and content delivery
AWS storage and content delivery services offer flexible and scalable solutions for storing, protecting, and delivering content in the cloud. Here are some of the main functions of these services:
- Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3): Allows you to store and retrieve massive amounts of data from anywhere on the web.
- Amazon Elastic Block Store (EBS): Offers persistent block storage volumes for use with Amazon EC2 instances.
- Amazon Elastic File System (EFS): Provides elastic and scalable file storage for Amazon EC2 instances.
- Amazon Glacier: Provides low-cost, long-term backup and archiving storage for data.
- Amazon CloudFront: Allows you to securely and scalably distribute content to users around the world.
These storage and content delivery services help businesses store and deliver content quickly and reliably to users worldwide. With scalable and flexible options, businesses can customize their storage and content delivery infrastructure to meet their specific needs.
Database
AWS database services offer a wide range of options for storing, managing, and accessing data in cloud computing environments. Here are some of the main functions of these services:
- Amazon Relational Database Service (RDS): Allows you to deploy, operate, and scale managed relational databases such as MySQL, PostgreSQL, Oracle, and SQL Server.
- Amazon DynamoDB: Provides a fully managed and scalable NoSQL database that offers fast and predictable performance.
- Amazon Aurora: Offers a cloud-compatible MySQL and PostgreSQL relational database that is scalable, resilient, and highly available.
- Amazon Redshift: Provides a fast, scalable, and secure data warehousing service for data analysis.
- Amazon DocumentDB: Provides a managed and scalable document database that is compatible with applications using MongoDB.
These AWS database services help businesses store and manage data efficiently and at scale in the cloud. With options for relational and NoSQL databases, businesses can choose the database solution that best meets their needs for storage, performance, and scalability.
Networking
AWS network services provide a variety of solutions for building, managing, and securing networks in the cloud. Here are some of the main functions of these services:
- Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (VPC): Allows you to create a virtual private network in the AWS cloud and control access to resources.
- AWS Direct Connect: Provides a dedicated network connection from your premises to AWS, which can increase bandwidth and reduce network costs.
- Amazon Route 53: Provides a highly available and scalable DNS service for routing traffic to your web applications.
- Elastic Load Balancing (ELB): Automatically distributes incoming traffic across multiple targets, such as Amazon EC2 instances, to improve application availability and scalability.
- Amazon API Gateway: Enables you to create, publish, and manage APIs for web applications and back-end services.
These AWS network services help businesses build and manage networks that are scalable, secure, and highly available. With flexible solutions for creating virtual private networks, connecting to the cloud, and routing traffic to web applications, businesses can customize their network infrastructure to meet their specific needs.
Management and security
AWS management and security services provide a range of tools and solutions for monitoring, securing, and managing cloud infrastructure and resources. Here are some of the main functions of these services:
- AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM): Allows you to manage user access and permissions to AWS resources.
- AWS CloudTrail: Provides event history of AWS account activity, including actions taken through the AWS Management Console, AWS SDKs, command line tools, and other AWS services.
- AWS Config: Provides a detailed view of the configuration of AWS resources, including how they are related and how they were configured over time.
- Amazon CloudWatch: Monitors AWS resources and applications, providing data and actionable insights to improve operational efficiency and security.
- AWS Key Management Service (KMS): Allows you to create and control the encryption keys used to protect data stored in AWS.
These AWS management and security services help businesses monitor, manage, and secure their cloud resources and infrastructure. With tools for managing user access, monitoring account activity, and configuring resources, businesses can ensure that their cloud environment is secure and compliant with industry standards.
Analytics
AWS data analytics services offer solutions for managing, storing, and processing large volumes of data, enabling companies to make informed decisions based on valuable insights. Here are some of the main data analytics services provided by AWS:
- Amazon Redshift: It’s a data warehousing service that allows storing large amounts of data in one place and analyzing it quickly and efficiently.
- Amazon EMR: It’s a big data processing service that allows processing large amounts of data using distributed processing frameworks such as Apache Hadoop and Spark.
- Amazon Athena: It’s a query analysis service that allows running SQL queries on data stored in Amazon S3.
- Amazon Kinesis: It’s a service that allows capturing, processing, and analyzing real-time streaming data.
- Amazon QuickSight: It’s a business intelligence service that allows creating interactive dashboards and reports for data analysis.
These AWS data analytics services allow companies to process, analyze, and visualize large amounts of data quickly and efficiently, allowing them to make informed and data-driven business decisions.
Machine learning
AWS machine learning services are designed to help companies implement and manage artificial intelligence solutions in an easy and scalable way. Here are some of the main machine learning services provided by AWS:
- Amazon SageMaker: It’s a fully managed service that helps create, train, and deploy machine learning models.
- Amazon Rekognition: It’s a machine learning-based image and video analysis service that can be used to analyze and identify objects, faces, and emotions.
- Amazon Comprehend: It’s a natural language processing service that can be used to analyze and understand text.
- Amazon Forecast: It’s a machine learning-based forecasting service that can be used to predict future outcomes with high accuracy.
- Amazon Personalize: It’s a service that helps create personalized recommendations for users based on their browsing and purchase histories.
These AWS machine learning services can help companies develop custom AI solutions, train machine learning models, and automate repetitive tasks such as data analysis and business forecasting.
