What is Amazon Web Services (AWS)?
Amazon Web Services (AWS) is a comprehensive cloud computing platform provided by Amazon. It offers a wide range of services including computing power, database storage, content delivery, and other functionality to help businesses scale and grow.
Key Benefits of AWS
Cost Effective
- • Pay only for what you use
- • No upfront costs or long-term contracts
- • Scale resources up or down as needed
Reliable & Secure
- • 99.99% uptime SLA for most services
- • Built-in security and compliance
- • Data encryption at rest and in transit
Core AWS Services
AWS offers over 200 services, but here are the essential ones you should know about when getting started.
Compute Services
Amazon EC2
Virtual servers in the cloud
- • Scalable computing capacity
- • Multiple instance types
- • Pay-per-hour billing
- • Auto-scaling capabilities
AWS Lambda
Serverless compute service
- • No server management
- • Pay per request
- • Automatic scaling
- • Event-driven execution
Amazon ECS
Container orchestration service
- • Docker container support
- • Highly scalable
- • Integrated with AWS services
- • Fargate serverless option
Storage Services
Amazon S3
Object storage service
- • 99.999999999% durability
- • Unlimited storage capacity
- • Multiple storage classes
- • Web hosting capabilities
Amazon EBS
Block storage for EC2
- • Persistent block storage
- • High IOPS performance
- • Snapshot backup
- • Encryption support
Amazon EFS
Managed file storage
- • Scalable file storage
- • Multiple EC2 access
- • POSIX-compliant
- • Pay for what you use
Database Services
Amazon RDS
Managed relational database
- • MySQL, PostgreSQL, Oracle
- • Automated backups
- • Multi-AZ deployments
- • Read replicas
Amazon DynamoDB
NoSQL database service
- • Single-digit millisecond latency
- • Fully managed
- • Auto-scaling
- • Global tables
Amazon ElastiCache
In-memory data store
- • Redis and Memcached
- • Sub-millisecond latency
- • Fully managed
- • High availability
Networking & Content Delivery
Amazon VPC
Virtual private cloud
- • Isolated network environment
- • Custom IP address ranges
- • Subnets and route tables
- • Security groups and NACLs
Amazon CloudFront
Global content delivery network
- • Global edge locations
- • Low latency content delivery
- • DDoS protection
- • SSL/TLS encryption
Elastic Load Balancer
Distribute incoming traffic
- • Application Load Balancer
- • Network Load Balancer
- • Classic Load Balancer
- • Health checks
Security & Identity Management
AWS provides comprehensive security features and identity management services to protect your resources and data.
AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM)
Control access to AWS services and resources securely.
Core Components
- • Users: Individual people or services
- • Groups: Collection of users
- • Roles: Set of permissions for AWS services
- • Policies: Documents defining permissions
Best Practices
- • Enable MFA for all users
- • Follow principle of least privilege
- • Use roles for applications
- • Regularly audit permissions
Additional Security Services
AWS WAF
Web application firewall to protect against common attacks
AWS Shield
DDoS protection for applications running on AWS
AWS KMS
Key Management Service for encryption keys
Monitoring & Management
AWS provides powerful tools to monitor, manage, and optimize your cloud infrastructure.
Amazon CloudWatch
Monitoring and observability service for AWS resources and applications.
Key Features
- • Metrics collection and monitoring
- • Log aggregation and analysis
- • Alarms and notifications
- • Custom dashboards
- • Application insights
Use Cases
- • Infrastructure monitoring
- • Application performance tracking
- • Resource utilization optimization
- • Automated responses to events
- • Troubleshooting and debugging
AWS CloudFormation
Infrastructure as Code service to model and provision AWS resources.
Benefits
- • Consistent resource provisioning
- • Version control for infrastructure
- • Automated rollback capabilities
- • Cross-region deployments
Template Format
- • JSON or YAML format
- • Parameters and outputs
- • Conditions and mappings
- • Nested stacks support
Developer Tools & DevOps
AWS provides a comprehensive suite of tools for continuous integration, deployment, and application development.
CI/CD Pipeline Services
AWS CodeCommit
Fully managed source control service
- • Git-based repositories
- • Secure and scalable
- • Integration with AWS services
- • No size limits
AWS CodeBuild
Fully managed continuous integration
- • Compiles source code
- • Runs tests
- • Produces software packages
- • Pay-per-use pricing
AWS CodeDeploy
Automated application deployment
- • Deploy to EC2, Lambda, ECS
- • Blue/green deployments
- • Rolling deployments
- • Automatic rollback
Container Services
Amazon EKS
Managed Kubernetes service
- • Fully managed Kubernetes control plane
- • Automatic updates and patching
- • Integration with AWS services
- • High availability and security
AWS Fargate
Serverless compute for containers
- • No server management
- • Pay for what you use
- • Works with ECS and EKS
- • Automatic scaling
Application Integration & Messaging
AWS provides services to help you integrate and coordinate distributed applications and microservices.
Messaging Services
Amazon SQS
Simple Queue Service
- • Fully managed message queuing
- • Standard and FIFO queues
- • Dead letter queues
- • Secure and reliable
Amazon SNS
Simple Notification Service
- • Pub/sub messaging
- • Mobile push notifications
- • Email and SMS
- • Fan-out messaging
Amazon EventBridge
Event bus service
- • Event-driven architectures
- • SaaS application integration
- • Custom event routing
- • Schema registry
API Management
Amazon API Gateway
Fully managed API service
- • RESTful and WebSocket APIs
- • Authentication and authorization
- • Traffic management and caching
- • Request/response transformation
AWS AppSync
Managed GraphQL service
- • Real-time data synchronization
- • Offline support
- • Multiple data sources
- • Built-in security features
Analytics & Big Data
AWS offers a comprehensive suite of analytics services to help you gain insights from your data.
Data Processing & Analytics
Amazon Redshift
Cloud data warehouse
- • Petabyte-scale data warehouse
- • Columnar storage
- • Massively parallel processing
- • SQL compatibility
Amazon EMR
Managed big data platform
- • Apache Hadoop and Spark
- • Process vast amounts of data
- • Auto-scaling clusters
- • Cost-effective analytics
Amazon Athena
Interactive query service
- • Query data in S3 using SQL
- • Serverless
- • Pay per query
- • Standard SQL support
Real-time Analytics
Amazon Kinesis
Real-time data streaming
- • Data Streams for real-time processing
- • Data Firehose for data delivery
- • Data Analytics for stream processing
- • Video Streams for video analytics
AWS Glue
ETL service
- • Extract, transform, load data
- • Data catalog and discovery
- • Serverless
- • Schema inference
Machine Learning & Artificial Intelligence
AWS offers the most comprehensive set of machine learning services and supporting cloud infrastructure.
ML Platform Services
Amazon SageMaker
Fully managed ML platform
- • Build, train, and deploy ML models
- • Jupyter notebook instances
- • Automatic model tuning
- • Model registry and monitoring
Amazon Bedrock
Fully managed service for foundation models
- • Access to leading foundation models
- • Fine-tune models with your data
- • Build generative AI applications
- • Secure and private
AI Services
Amazon Rekognition
Image and video analysis service
Amazon Comprehend
Natural language processing service
Amazon Textract
Extract text and data from documents
Amazon Polly
Text-to-speech service
Amazon Transcribe
Speech-to-text service
Amazon Translate
Language translation service
AWS Global Infrastructure
Understanding AWS global infrastructure is crucial for designing resilient and performant applications.
Infrastructure Components
AWS Regions
- • Geographic areas with multiple AZs
- • 33+ regions worldwide
- • Data sovereignty compliance
- • Isolated from other regions
Availability Zones
- • One or more data centers
- • Independent power and cooling
- • High-bandwidth, low-latency network
- • Fault isolation boundaries
Edge Locations
- • CloudFront content delivery
- • 400+ edge locations
- • Reduced latency for users
- • Global content caching
Design Principles
High Availability
- • Deploy across multiple AZs
- • Use load balancers
- • Implement auto-scaling
- • Design for failure
Disaster Recovery
- • Cross-region replication
- • Backup and restore strategies
- • Pilot light and warm standby
- • Multi-site active/active
Cost Management & Optimization
AWS provides tools and strategies to help you monitor, control, and optimize your cloud spending.
Cost Management Tools
AWS Cost Explorer
Visualize and analyze your AWS costs and usage
- • Cost and usage reports
- • Forecasting and budgeting
- • Right-sizing recommendations
- • Reserved Instance recommendations
- • Custom cost allocation tags
AWS Budgets
Set custom cost and usage budgets with alerts
- • Cost, usage, and RI utilization budgets
- • Email and SNS notifications
- • Custom budget periods
- • Budget actions automation
Cost Optimization Strategies
Right-Sizing
- • Monitor resource utilization
- • Use AWS Compute Optimizer
- • Match instance types to workloads
- • Implement auto-scaling
Reserved Instances
- • 1-3 year commitments
- • Up to 75% cost savings
- • Standard and Convertible types
- • Regional or zonal flexibility
Spot Instances
- • Up to 90% cost savings
- • Fault-tolerant workloads
- • Batch processing and CI/CD
- • Auto Scaling integration
AWS Pricing Models
Pay-As-You-Go
Pay only for what you use with no upfront costs
- • No minimum commitments
- • Scale up or down anytime
- • Perfect for variable workloads
- • Most services use this model
Free Tier
Free usage limits for 12 months plus always-free services
- • 750 hours EC2 t2.micro monthly
- • 5GB S3 Standard storage
- • 1 million Lambda requests monthly
- • Always-free DynamoDB, SNS, CloudWatch
Getting Started with AWS
Ready to begin your AWS journey? Here's how to get started with the cloud platform.
Account Setup and Initial Configuration
Create AWS Account
Sign up at aws.amazon.com with email and payment method
- • Verify email and phone number
- • Choose support plan (Basic is free)
- • Account activation takes a few minutes
Secure Your Root Account
Protect your root account with MFA and strong password
- • Enable Multi-Factor Authentication
- • Create IAM users for daily tasks
- • Never share root credentials
Set Up Billing Alerts
Monitor costs to avoid unexpected charges
- • Create billing alarms in CloudWatch
- • Set up AWS Budgets
- • Review Free Tier usage regularly
Recommended Learning Path
Beginner Level (1-2 months)
- • Master the AWS Management Console
- • Launch your first EC2 instance
- • Store files in S3 buckets
- • Create simple Lambda functions
- • Set up basic monitoring with CloudWatch
- • Understand IAM users, groups, and policies
Intermediate Level (3-6 months)
- • Design VPC networks with subnets
- • Deploy applications with load balancers
- • Set up RDS databases with backups
- • Implement auto-scaling groups
- • Create CloudFormation templates
- • Build CI/CD pipelines with CodePipeline
AWS Best Practices
Security
- • Enable MFA on all accounts
- • Use IAM roles over access keys
- • Apply principle of least privilege
- • Encrypt data at rest and in transit
- • Regularly rotate credentials
Reliability
- • Design for failure and redundancy
- • Use multiple Availability Zones
- • Implement automated backups
- • Monitor applications and infrastructure
- • Test disaster recovery procedures
Cost Optimization
- • Right-size your resources
- • Use Reserved and Spot Instances
- • Implement auto-scaling
- • Monitor and optimize storage
- • Choose appropriate service tiers
Common AWS Use Cases
Explore how different industries and business scenarios leverage AWS services.
Web Applications
Host scalable web applications with global reach
Data Analytics
Process and analyze large datasets for business insights
Machine Learning
Build, train, and deploy ML models at scale
Backup & Disaster Recovery
Protect critical data and ensure business continuity
Getting Started with Your AWS Journey
AWS offers an incredibly powerful and flexible cloud platform that can scale with your needs. Whether you're a startup building your first application or an enterprise migrating complex workloads, AWS provides the tools and services to help you succeed.
Start Learning
Begin with AWS Free Tier and hands-on tutorials
Build Projects
Practice with real-world projects and use cases
Get Certified
Validate your skills with AWS certifications
Ready to dive deeper? Explore specific AWS services or check out our other cloud computing guides.