What Is AWS (Amazon Web Services) And Who Is It For?
Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last twenty years, then you’ve most likely heard of Amazon (and no, we’re not referring to the rainforest). After all, its founder is among the wealthiest people in the entire world.
But possibly one of its several services has you scratching your head and wondering, “What is AWS?” Well, you’re going to learn that the answer to that is a little more complex than you might have thought.
Don’t worry though! We’ll guide you into everything you need to know about AWS.
What Is Amazon Web Services (AWS)?
AWS, also known as Amazon Web Services, is one of the best service providers out there that offer on-demand services like computation, networking, storage, protection, databases, and much more. These services can be accessed using the internet from any part of the world without the user having to maintain or keep an eye on the resources.
In terms of market share for Public Clouds, Amazon Web Services is the 2nd leading service in the world and offers cloud storage services in 245 countries worldwide. It also offers over 200 different cloud computing services that span a variety of domains such as:
- Messaging
- Security
- Networking
- Storage
- Migration
- DevOps
- Computation
- Monitoring
- IoT
- Databases
- Analytics
- Big Data
- Backup, and much more.
With that information, now you know how reliable, secure, and versatile this cloud storage service provider is. That’s why companies have invested billions of dollars in AWS, and the figure is expected to rise in the years to come.
Now, let’s quickly dive into the advantages that make Amazon Web Services so popular.
Why Is AWS So Popular?
Let’s look at the many benefits that Amazon Web Services (AWS) offers.
1. Very easy to use
On the list of advantages of using Amazon Web Services, this has to come in first. Because the platform is specifically intended for speedy and secure access, AWS is super simple to use—even for beginners.
The majority of businesses find it easier to start with AWS as their cloud provider than with, say, Azure or even Google Cloud Platform.
Even better? AWS offers you with all of the knowledge, documentation, and video training you need to figure out how to make use of all of its services too. No wonder it’s considered one of the best cloud storage services!
2. Wide variety of configurations
Another factor that leads many businesses to choose AWS is flexibility. It allows you to use the web application platforms, programming languages, and operating systems that you are most familiar with, so you can create your own virtual computing environment exactly how you want it.
When using AWS, you are offered all the top services that are necessary for your application to run smoothly.
3. Keeps data safe
Another one of the major advantages of using AWS cloud computing is security, which is, as we all know, the top concern of every data-driven business. To guarantee the protection of your data, AWS offers a very secure data architecture, as well as several levels of data surveillance, including:
- Continuous surveillance and threat detection
- Data security
- Infrastructure defense
- Data privacy and compliance
- Identification and access control
AWS offers an end-to-end approach so that businesses don’t have to worry about protecting their privacy, and can instead concentrate on growing their business.
4. Won’t be heavy on the wallet
If you stick to the old ways, you’ll need to spend a significant amount of time and money building your own servers to store your data and apps. But by using AWS, where you just pay for the resources and services you need to use, you won’t have to invest in pricey servers.
AWS provides a pay-as-you-go pricing model, which allows any business to only pay for the services that they really need and have used for an extended period of time. It’s just like paying for your power bill, where you only pay for the electricity you’ve used.
What’s also great about AWS is that it’s also a service with no commitment. What this means is you’re able to start using it whenever you want, and stop whenever without any issues or complications.
5. Highly elastic and scalable
The AWS Auto Scaling service, which continuously raises the capacity of limited resources in line with what an application needs to ensure it’s constantly available, is what makes AWS so highly scalable. This feature makes it super simple to spin up brand-new servers in a matter of minutes.
But, what if you don’t need some of the resources that you have? This is an important question a lot of businesses ask themselves, especially when they don’t want any unneeded costs and additional management.
Luckily, if you need to utilize fewer resources and don’t want to use the rest of them, AWS is pretty elastic – they can decrease the resources for you, and it’s easy to downsize and upsize whenever needed.
6. Super performant
High-performance computing (HPC) refers to the ability to process large amounts of data efficiently, which is increasingly important for a business’ productivity, and for competing with other businesses. That’s why AWS provides this high-performance computing service so that businesses can take a step back and never have to worry about speed.
What Companies Use AWS?
Amazon Web Services is great but you’d be surprised with just how valuable it is. To put things into perspective, it is used by an estimated one million businesses!
I’m sure we all know the streaming giant Netflix, who signed up for AWS back in 2009. Well, over time, Netflix made the decision to transfer all of its IT services and operations to the cloud platform in 2016, which kinda stretched AWS to its breaking point. Some might say this is a bad thing, but this pushed AWS to increase its capacity, which allowed them to meet all of Netflix’s storage needs.
So, after all that time, Netflix became the largest AWS user, taking the top spot with $19m (based on EC2 monthly spending).
Some other renowned companies that use AWS include:
- BBC
- Twitch
- Adobe
- Airbnb
- Tesla
- Epic Games
- Pfizer
That’s just to name a few. We would run out of space if we were to list them all for you!
In What Cases Can I Use AWS?
Now that you know more about AWS and some of its very famous clients, you may be wondering: when exactly are you supposed to use it? Let’s take a look at some uses:
1. For backup
Having a backup of your essential files is a very critical component of any cloud computing service. Fortunately, AWS Backup also retrieves data stored in other AWS services.
On top of that, AWS stores your data in three distinct availability zones. This ensures that you can still access your data even if one zone fails. This makes AWS storage dependable and convenient.
2. For storing large amounts of data
Big Data management is currently one of the main challenges businesses are facing today. They are having difficulty storing huge volumes of data through conventional methods.
Luckily, AWS Big Data storage services are here to save the day. Since AWS offers almost infinite data storage with scale-in and scale-out options, you can rest assured that they’ll always have space for all your precious data.
AWS also provides quick data retrieval and simple access with services like EMR for data processing, making it easy for you to set up, run, and scale your big data.
3. For creating social networks
In today’s world, where online marketing is crucial, social networking plays an important role for organizations. Through social networking sites, businesses can communicate, engage with clients and stakeholders, and grow their operations. And, this is made simpler with AWS.
Services such as Elgg, the AWS social networking engine which is driven by the TurnKey GNU/Linux (HVM), are utilized for performance and scalability to assist businesses in creating an ideal social networking site and earning profits from it.
Don’t Get Left Behind in the Digital World
In the digital world, time flies by very fast. Everything is just evolving as we know it, especially since a lot of people are starting to get newer data and information.
So, how exactly can you keep up? Well, Amazon Web Services (AWS) might be able to help. AWS has emerged as a viable solution for businesses looking for reliable, scalable, and inexpensive cloud computing services.
Whether you’re a startup or an established enterprise, you’ll find so many tools and features in Amazon’s extensive packages that’ll fulfill most, if not all your wants and needs. Plus, they also promise maximum uptime and continuous support too, so you know you’re in good hands.
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