What is AWS? A Detailed Guide

To build a successful future as an AWS professional, you must know the basics of "What is AWS?" AWS is the most prominent cloud platform, providing clients with multiple services and solutions worldwide, including individuals, enterprises, and organisations.  

From AWS computing power to storage, Database Management, and even Artificial Intelligence (AI), opting for this cloud service allows you to enjoy that suite of tools whenever and wherever you have network access. It becomes a platform where enablement businesses can do other, scale, and redesign scale operations without purchasing sizeable physical infrastructure.  

So, what are you waiting for? Read this blog further and learn about What is AWS. 

Table of Contents 

1) What is Cloud Computing? 

2) What is AWS? 

3) How does AWS Work? 

4) History of AWS 

5) Applications of AWS 

6) AWS benefits and drawbacks 

7) Conclusion 

What is Cloud Computing? 

Cloud Computing means providing Information and Communication Technology (ICT) services like computing servers, storage, databases, networking, software, and analytics through the internet (cloud). Users can access the resources without space and equipment, making them accessible anytime, anywhere. Cloud Computing possesses flexibility, scalability, and low cost, which enables companies to scale resources up and down as needed.  

Cloud Computing eliminates the need for initial investment in IT infrastructure and hardware maintenance costs. It allows organisations to divert their time and energy to innovation and growth instead of hardware management. Cloud Computing reshapes how companies' access, store, and deal with data, transforming business processes and the digital age.
 

What is AWS? 

Among many Cloud Computing platforms developed by Amazon, AWS or Amazon Web Services is one of the most widespread and full-spectrum software solutions. It provides an awe-inspiring selection of cloud services, including computation, storage, networking, databases, Machine Learning, and Artificial Intelligence.  

Through AWS, companies are liberated from the prior commitment to acquire on-premises equipment since they can access the services through the Internet on demand. Keeping to its claim of having secure data centres worldwide, AWS promises fast data transmissions and high access for its clients. 

With its scalable options for startups, enterprises, and government organisations, AWS offers different solution packages for each case. Its functional system is pay go, which means you pay only for the resources you use. This model is cost-effective and scalable even for large enterprises.  

In addition, AWS provides robust security features, compliance certifications, and extensive management tools so that companies don't have difficulty securely running workloads in the cloud. 

History of AWS 

Established in 2006, Amazon Web Services (AWS) derived from Amazon's internal infrastructure and now provides Cloud Computing services to external customers. AWS began with simple ones such as Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) and Simple Storage Service (S3), gradually introducing more advanced ones, including various services catering for computing, storage, database, networking, Machine Learning, and more.  

In the past decades, AWS has become the first cloud service provider to provide cloud services to millions of organisations, companies, and government institutions around the globe. Its global network, unique services, and customer-focused approach have made it a significant player in Cloud Computing. 

How does AWS work? 

These points will help you explain how does AWS work:
 

a) Global infrastructure: AWS manages a vast network of data centres at the level of regions and availability zones in all countries to provide services worldwide. With a gateway in three locations on each continent, we offer our customers low latency and high availability. 

b) Service offerings: AWS provides many cloud services, such as computing power (EC2), storage (S3), databases (RDS), networking (VPC), and others. These features are On-demand and accessible online. 

c) Pay-as-you-go pricing: AWS offers a classic way of keeping it simple, paying only for the resources you use instead of complex packages and paying for stuff you don't need. This affordability variation enables companies of all scales to benefit and ensure inclusion. 

d) Scalability: AWS provides scalable cloud solutions, enabling businesses to expand their infrastructure quickly. AWS allows companies to scale up effortlessly and down the infrastructure in response to demand. Thus, organisations can react to workload variation without hiring additional employees, as flexibility allows them to hire for their needs. 

e) Security: As an AWS provider, security and regulatory compliance remain a priority, and we offer a wide range of security features. IAM, encryption, and network security are only a few of these features. AWS has also gained a few compliance certificates to comply with industry-specific regulatory norms. 

f) Management tools: AWS provides tools and services to manage businesses’ cloud resources efficiently. AWS offers several tools, including the management console, cloud formation for infrastructure as code, and the Command-Line Interface (CLI) tool. 

g) Integration: AWS services might offer an integrated approach that eliminates the legacy tier issues between the different services to simplify structuring multi-tier complex applications. Moreover, AWS provides integration with third-party applications across the breadth of its ecosystem of partners. 

h) Continuous innovation: AWS realises that the organisation must keep innovating; otherwise, it will lose its position in the market. As a result, new features and services are continuously released to meet not necessarily the company's needs but the latest trends of its consumers. As a result, these fancy innovations provide businesses with that jetting position to outpace their competition in a swift digital marketplace. 

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Applications of AWS 

AWS, a Cloud Computing service from Amazon, gives customers numerous services tailored for all industries and uses. From data storage and backup, as well as Artificial Intelligence and customer interaction, AWS renders scalable and inexpensive models to address the needs of business units worldwide as these needs continuously unfold. Let's explore some of the key applications of AWS in more detail:  

1) Storage and backup 

AWS ensures the reliability and security of its storage options through its services like Amazon S3 and Amazon Glacier. Such services enable data protection, e.g., backing up or archiving, storing, recovering, and restoring data, which is of primary importance. 

2) Websites 

Many services, including Amazon EC2 and Amazon Lightsail, allow businesses to operate their websites on AWS. With such services, static and dynamic sites can now be hosted without limits on scalability and availability. 

3) Gaming 

AWS is a platform that offers a collection of services for the gaming industry: Amazon GameLift for the simple purpose of deploying, operating, scaling, and managing multiplayer game servers and Amazon Lumberyard for full-fledged real-time gaming involving elaborate graphics and physics simulations. 

4) Migration 

AWS offers utilities and services that help applications and data transition into the cloud from existing ones. Individually, AWS Migration Hub and AWS Server Migration Service provide a service that enables enterprise migration process optimisation by reducing business operations' interruptions and downtime. 

5) Big Data Analytics and Management 

Amazon-like services such as Amazon Elastic MapReduce (EMR), Amazon Redshift, and Amazon Athena allow businesses to address the challenges posed by a large amount of data by processing and summarising that data quickly and cost-effectively. These services work for batch processing as well as in real-time. They also process data gathered in warehouses. 

6) Artificial Intelligence 

AWS is designed with a collection of AI and Machine Learning services that are used for various instances, including Amazon SageMaker and Amazon Rekognition. These services are helpful for companies to increase the popularity of AI for completing tasks, drawing conclusions, and making good decisions. 

7) Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality 

AWS offers features such as Amazon Sumerian, which helps develop Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) applications. These services catch business attention by allowing businesses to create interactive 3D experiences distributed across various platforms and devices. 

8) Game Development 

Not only does AWS provide gaming server hosting solutions, but it also delivers technologies like Amazon GameLift and Amazon Lumberyard for gaming entrepreneurs. These outsourced solutions provide development, implementation, and grading tools, reducing developers' workload, mainly the game creation part. 

9) Internet of Things (IoT) 

AWS IoT services help enterprises to connect, manage and analyse data from billions of IoT devices securely and at scale. AWS IoT Core, AWS IoT Greengrass, and AWS IoT Analytics provide the core functionalities necessary to build IoT applications and distil facts from IoT data. 

10) Customer engagement 

AWS provides many services that help customers boost their engagement and experience with personalised services. Amazon Personalise and Amazon Pinpoint services include: 

a) Analysing customer behaviour 

b) Directing customers to groups that fit them 

c) Delivering customised messages through many channels 

AWS benefits and drawbacks 

Here are several AWS benefits and drawbacks that you need to know: 

Benefits 

a) Scalability: AWS has developed intelligent elastic scalability so businesses can quickly ramp up or down their resources depending on demand. 

b) Cost-effectiveness: Adopting a pay-per-use fee structure enables businesses to pay only for what is now used, replacing the need to make prior investments in hardware. 

c) Global infrastructure: AWS has a globally distributed infrastructure of data centres, thereby allowing clientele to benefit from low latency and high accessibility near their geographic region. 

d) Security: AWS security and compliance are among the first things the platform provides. To protect customers’ data securely and efficiently, it provides a range of Cyber Security features and certifications. 

e) Flexibility: AWS assures provision of the whole hosting infrastructure, which gives organisations the freedom to form, create, and deploy applications lightning fast. 

f) Reliability: AWS comes with a Service-Level Agreement (SLA) that subscribes to your services to prevent the systems from being down all the time and ensure that the business is running. 

Drawbacks 

a) Complexity: AWS services are complex to manage, and the only way to configure and optimise them successfully is to have the skills, experience, and expertise. 

b) Cost management: Unlike the other AWS, it may be expensive as the more you use, the more expensive it will become. 

c) Vendor lock-in: Many businesses may continue using the AWS vendor highly and make it hard to switch to different alternatives when they have invested heavily in the corresponding AWS services. 

d) Security risks: Despite AWS's high-priority security, proper security measures for applications and data safety are still recommended. 

e) Service outages: Regardless of its trustworthiness, AWS can face outages and situations that may affect the businesses on which its services depend. 

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Conclusion 

We hope this blog has helped you understand What is AWS and its core features, which are beneficial for your organisations. AWS has remained an outstanding cloud service provider, aiding businesses in their innovations and success in the age of digitalisation. 

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