AWS is a platform that has significantly changed how businesses of all sizes can access, manage, and use computing resources. Moreover, from its creation to the development of its wide range of services, it has empowered cloud computing with essential contributions in the current world. In this article, we will explore AWS: What is it?
We will start by addressing the AWS meaning of the acronym and what it represents. Next, we will delve into the concept of cloud computing, analyzing its implications and how AWS is an integral part of this ecosystem. Further, we will learn the essence of Amazon Web Services and how it has transformed conventional computing.
As a guide on this journey of discovery, we will take you through various topics, including comparisons with traditional hosting services, the origin of AWS, and its early services. Furthermore, we will explore AWS’s versatility and its service infrastructure. Finally, we will discuss AWS pricing and payment options, including the possibility of free access and its benefits. Keep reading and get ready to discover the possibilities of AWS.
In this article:
AWS Meaning
The initials AWS stand for “Amazon Web Services,” a division of the technology giant Amazon, named Amazon.com Web Services at its inception. Further, the term “Web Services” comes from the fact that in 2006, Amazon started offering hosting computing capacity and storage defined as “Web Services.”
Later, after the emergence of a wide range of alternative providers in this nascent industry, such as Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud, these services would come to be commonly known as cloud computing.
What Is Cloud Computing?
Cloud computing is a service model and technology that lets you use servers, storage, software, and data processing online. These are hosted by service providers on distant infrastructure that you can access from any place with an internet connection.
The main characteristics of cloud computing are:
- Ease of use: Companies and users enable new servers or other components through user-friendly web pages, contrasting with the need to use complex remote access software or operating system console commands.
- On-demand pricing: Service providers bill cloud services according to consumption and use. As a result, clients avoid initial investment in infrastructure and paying for maintenance whether they are using it or not.
There are different types of clouds, such as:
- Public cloud: Tech giants such as Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud offer on-demand computing services to multiple clients.
- Private cloud: Commissioned by a single company or group, guarantees greater control and security.
- Hybrid Cloud: Aggregates the public and private cloud elements, allowing users to choose where to store information.
AWS: What Is It?
AWS is the technology giant Amazon’s flagship cloud offering, providing a colossal range of cloud services, including computing, storage, databases, data analytics, artificial intelligence, and much more.
By using Amazon Web Services, companies do not access and use specific servers but rather virtualized computing resources. As a result, in just a few clicks, they can rent virtual instances in the AWS cloud, obtaining the computing capacity they need to run software applications and batch workloads.
With the AWS cloud, it is possible to launch virtual machines in seconds. Similarly, users can specify the number of CPU cores, memory, storage, and other features. Furthermore, they only pay for these resources while running and can delete them when they no longer need them. As a result, thanks to this flexibility, it is possible, for example, to create an application to serve the first customers and then expand it to meet the next 100 million without paying for all the necessary computing capacity upfront.
By virtualizing computing resources as “Web Services,” users can directly access the computing resources they need without caring for the underlying Information Technology (IT) infrastructure. For example, you can use application containers and databases without managing the operating system, network, and physical infrastructure of the servers where those services are.
AWS has become one of the leading cloud service providers worldwide, allowing companies of all sizes to access computing resources flexibly, scalable, and cost-effectively, eliminating the need to maintain expensive physical infrastructures. As a result, Companies, government organizations, educational institutions, and startups of various sizes and industries use its services.
AWS vs. Regular Web Hosting
Public cloud and regular hosting services significantly differ in functionality and capabilities.
On the one hand, the services offered by a public cloud like AWS are available on-demand. Users can quickly increase its scale (number of virtual servers) according to their needs. Moreover, public clouds provide greater flexibility and agility in the development and deployment of applications. Also, they allow users to access the latest technologies and updates.
In contrast, regular hosting services typically offer limited resources and options. Furthermore, these services often have a fixed configuration and costs, which can limit scalability and adaptability to changing user needs.
Regular hosting services may also require manual configuration and management, which takes more time and effort than the public cloud. For example, if you wanted to install serverless software containers and the systems for orchestrating them, it would have to be done manually, including downloading and installing the software on the virtual server. In contrast, the process is significantly simplified in a public cloud, using web interfaces allowing quick installation and configuration.
Who Is AWS’s Founder?
AWS wasn’t founded or created by a single person but by several Amazon employees.
Jeff Barr, an early AWS employee, attributes the idea that would evolve into the first Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2), Simple Storage Service (S3), and Relational Database Service (RDS) to Allan Vermeulen, Andy Jassy, Jeff Bezos himself, and a few others.
According to Jassy, the idea resulted from several brainstorming sessions over a single week. “Ten of the best technology minds and ten of the best product management minds” of the company were involved.
What Is Amazon AWS Used For?
AWS allows its clients to easily self-manage their access to information technology infrastructure, platforms, and software outsourcing. Therefore, companies can stop worrying about managing and maintaining their physical servers and instead leverage the services and resources of the AWS cloud.
As a result, AWS users gain greater flexibility to scale their operations. Furthermore, they free up internal resources to focus on their growth and innovation.
AWS allows companies to:
- Avoid significant and costly upfront investments in hardware, software, and infrastructure maintenance when their software products still need to be launched or their profitability is uncertain. As a result, companies significantly reduce financial risk.
- Save time in procuring and installing new computing resources. Instead of placing an order, waiting for it to arrive, and getting the money for the purchase, they can switch to a model that allows provisioning and enabling new computing resources in seconds when needed.
- Increase or decrease their enabled computing resources almost instantly. As a result, optimizing costs and avoiding the need to provision based on maximum demand all the time.
- Quickly adapt to changes in demand. For instance, easily adjusting capacity to serve a growing number of users or reduce resources during periods of inactivity.
- Implement innovative capabilities and emerging technologies, such as data analytics, artificial intelligence and machine learning, improving operational efficiency and making data-driven decisions. Also, they gain the ability to offer more personalized and tailored software applications to meet the needs of their customers.
- Adopt top-level data protection infrastructure and practices included in AWS’s service package. Therefore, companies can trust that Amazon’s best industry practices protect their assets and operations.
- Get high availability and performance, allowing them to ensure business continuity and deliver a seamless experience to their users.
AWS First Service
Amazon’s first AWS service was Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2). It was launched in August 2006 and was the first modern cloud infrastructure service to be commercialized.
Amazon EC2 allowed for renting computing capacity in the cloud and increasing capacity as needed. Since then, AWS has expanded its cloud services, and today, it offers over 200 fully functional services in data centers worldwide.
EC2: What Is It?
Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) allows users to rent virtual computing capacity (Instances) to run applications. Furthermore, with EC2, users can quickly launch and configure virtual instances and manage security, networking, and storage.
Virtualization technology is the basis of EC2, allowing users to create instances of virtual machines (VMs). These instances run on AWS’s infrastructure that users can customize to meet specific application needs. Furthermore, AWS offers many instance options, from the small and cost-effective to the large and powerful.
AWS users can choose the type of processor, amount of memory, storage, and other factors of their EC2 instances. Also, they can select their geographic locations for improved response times and redundancy. Additionally, EC2 integrates with other AWS services, such as Amazon S3 (Simple Storage Service), to provide persistent storage and cloud data access.
In practical terms, EC2 instances are comparable to virtual private servers (VPS). However, they are easier to manage, with default configurations and a more flexible pricing model.
Amazon Cloud Services: What Is the Offer?
Since the launch of EC2 in 2006, AWS has grown to offer over 200 fully functional services available in data centers worldwide. Above all, AWS provides various services on various operational management levels, from those requiring IT staff involvement to SaaS services fully managed by AWS.
Following the same pricing model as EC2, these services are available on-demand, accessible in seconds, and billed based on usage.
AWS’s Services (Other Than EC2)
- Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3): Provides scalable and persistent cloud storage for files and data.
- Amazon Relational Database Service (Amazon RDS): Offers managed relational databases, such as MySQL, PostgreSQL, Oracle, and SQL Server.
- AWS Lambda: This serverless computing service allows running code without provisioning or managing servers.
- Amazon DynamoDB: Fully managed, scalable NoSQL database for high-performance web and mobile applications.
- Amazon Simple Queue Service (Amazon SQS): A message queue service enables communication between distributed application components to decouple them.
- Amazon CloudFront: Content delivery service (CDN) that accelerates web content delivery globally.
- Amazon Elastic Beanstalk: Allows developers to deploy and manage web applications easily without caring about the underlying infrastructure.
- Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (Amazon VPC): Provides a secure, isolated virtual network in the cloud where users can enable AWS resources.
- Amazon Chime: Online collaboration tool offering chat, video conferencing, and voice calls, enabling effective communication and collaboration for teams.
- Amazon WorkDoc: This online document editing and collaboration platform provides secure cloud storage for files and facilitates real-time collaboration.
In addition, AWS offers many more services in various categories, such as data analytics, cloud networking, mobile applications, developer tools, management tools, Internet of Things (IoT), security, business applications, and more.
What Is the AWS Programming Language?
AWS services support executing code in diverse programming languages. For example, JavaScript (Node.js, React, Angular, Vue, and more), Python, Java, Go, C++, Ruby, PHP, and . NET.
The right programming language for an AWS application will depend on the application’s specific needs. For example, Python is a good choice for web applications, data analytics, and machine learning, as it is a versatile and easy-to-learn language. On the other hand, Java is a good choice for enterprise applications, as it is a robust and scalable language. Additionally, JavaScript is a good choice for web and mobile applications, as it is a native language for these environments.
Additionally, AWS offers a series of Software Development Kits (SDKs) for the supported programming languages, allowing interaction with AWS services.
Use cases for AWS SDKs include:
- File processing in Amazon S3.
- Computing on EC2.
- Sending messages on Amazon SQS.
- Databases in Amazon RDS.
- Databases in DynamoDB.
- Sending messages on Amazon SNS.
- Image processing on Amazon Rekognition.
The SDKs facilitate calling AWS services from the user’s code by providing predefined tools and libraries. Additionally, AWS offers SDKs for their Software as a Service (SaaS) solutions, allowing their more efficient use in code.
How Many Data Centers Does AWS Have?
As of January 2024, AWS has more than 700 data centers worldwide. Further, AWS infrastructure comprises 105 Availability Zones (AZ) distributed in 33 geographical regions worldwide. Each AZ consists of at least three independent data centers located significantly from each other, providing high availability for customer applications and data.
The number of Availability Zones (not to be confused with data centers) in each continent is:
- Africa: 2.
- North America: 20.
- South America: 7.
- Asia Pacific: 53.
- Europe: 13.
By distributing its data centers worldwide, AWS allows customers to provision resources in the regions closest to their users, minimizing the response times of their applications.
Where Is AWS Data Stored?
Amazon distributes its customer data across its global infrastructure of AWS data centers. Above all, AWS stores copies of customer data in multiple data centers. As a result, data owners get high availability and protection against loss due to force majeure.
AWS offers a variety of formats for data storage, including objects, databases (relational and non-relational), files, and even memory.
Additionally, AWS has multiple data security and protection mechanisms, including encryption for data at rest and in transit, role-based cloud access security, and constant monitoring to detect and counteract malicious activity.
Who Uses AWS?
A wide range of organizations use AWS, including:
- Businesses of all sizes: From small businesses to large multinational enterprises.
- Government Institutions: Governments use AWS for diverse purposes, including providing public services, tax administration, national defense, and public safety.
- Non-profit organizations: They use AWS to provide various services, including online education, distance learning, healthcare, and health services, among others.
Some specific examples of organizations using or having used AWS are:
- Companies: Adobe, Netflix, Airbnb, Spotify, Lyft, Tesla, Walmart, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Goldman Sachs, Coca-Cola, Siemens, Shell, Comcast, and Toyota.
- Government: NASA, the United States Department of Defense (The Pentagon), the United States Postal Service, the European Union, and the governments of India and Brazil.
- Non-profit organizations: International Red Cross, UNICEF, Doctors Without Borders, World Wildlife Fund, and Save The Children.
Among the companies using AWS are technology startups. Many of them have started their growth with minimal expenses using Amazon’s services instead of making significant investments in infrastructure. As these startups grow, they can move faster and at a lower cost. Furthermore, Amazon offers opportunities for new companies, such as providing credits to accelerators. Subsequently, these accelerators invest these funds in emerging startups.
Which Is Most Used AWS or Azure?
AWS and Azure are among the world’s leading cloud platforms. They both have a broad and deep set of features but differ in some essential aspects.
According to a report from Synergy Research Group, AWS had 32% of the global cloud market in the first quarter of 2023, while Azure accounted for 23%. As a result, AWS has a market share that is 9 percentage points higher than Azure.
AWS has more market share because it is established among companies of all sizes. On the other hand, Azure is still gaining ground among medium and large enterprises.
However, the Synergy Research Group report highlights that while AWS is in the lead, Microsoft and Google are acquiring new customers faster.
AWS Pricing: How Does It Work?
AWS uses a consumption-based pricing model, meaning you only pay for the services and resources you use. Further, AWS offers a variety of pricing options to suit different types of workloads and use cases.
AWS’s Most Common Pricing Models
- Pay-As-You-Go: Customers pay for the resources they use based on the usage time. For example, if you run an Amazon EC2 instance for 5 hours, you only pay for that usage.
- Reserved Prices and Long-Term Savings: Customers can commit to using an AWS service for a more extended period, obtaining significant discounts compared to pay-as-you-go pricing. This model is ideal for stable and predictable workloads.
- Spot Instance Pricing: You can get significant discounts if you are willing to use AWS’ surplus capacity. However, AWS can reclassify this capacity as no longer surplus without notice. As a result, you could experience interruptions to ongoing operations when using these resources.
- Data Transfer Pricing: AWS charges for customers’ data transfers between regions or between the cloud and on-premises networks.
AWS’s Pricing Variation Factors
- Type of Service: AWS offers a wide range of services, from Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) to Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS). The prices for each type of service are different.
- Features and Performance: AWS service prices vary according to the selected resource performance. For example, Amazon EC2 instances with more processing power and memory cost more than instances with less power.
- Location: AWS prices also vary based on the data centers’ location.
When multiple service instances are added at different levels, managing AWS cloud costs can become complex. Certainly, it can make it challenging to define predictable budgets and track costs. Consequently, AWS offers tools like AWS Cost Explorer to enable users to monitor and analyze costs. As a result, they gain visibility into how expenses are distributed and help identify opportunities for optimization.
Is There a Free AWS Account?
More than 100 AWS products are available in the AWS Free Tier. Further, there are three different types of free offers, depending on the product used:
- Always Free Services: These are available indefinitely for existing and new AWS customers.
- Free Tier for 12 months: These are only available for new AWS customers for 12 months from the date of registration. After the 12-month period expires or if usage exceeds the limits, standard pay-as-you-go rates will apply.
- Free trial period for a limited time: Short-term trial offers begin from the first usage. After the trial period expires, the standard service fee will be charged.
Some of the services included in the Free Tier are:
Always Free
- DynamoDB: Free NoSQL database up to 25GB.
- AWS Lambda: Software container with one million free requests per month.
- Amazon SNS: Messaging service between distributed software components with one million monthly free publications.
- Amazon CloudWatch: Resource and application monitoring with the first 10 metrics and custom alarms free.
- Amazon CloudFront: Content delivery service with high response times. The first terabyte of outbound transfers is free.
- Amazon Cognito: Amazon service that provides application access control features. The first 50,000 active users per month are free.
Free for the First 12 Months
- Amazon EC2: Amazon’s flagship virtual server instance service, with 750 free monthly hours for the first 12 months.
- Amazon S3: Object storage. The first 5GBs are free.
- Amazon RDS: MySQL, PostgreSQL, MariaDB, or SQL Server databases, with 750 free monthly hours.
- Amazon API Gateway: 1 million free received API calls per month.
- Amazon Comprehend: Natural Language Processing (NLP) engine with 50,000 free units of text per month.
- Amazon Polly: Amazon’s text-to-speech engine with 5 million free characters per month.
Is There an Amazon Web Services for Students?
The AWS Educate Program offers students worldwide access to different AWS resources and services, including the AWS Free Tier.
The program benefits are:
- Access to the Free Tier.
- Courses and certifications.
- Access to events and conferences.
- Network of contacts with students and professionals.
You must be an accredited educational institution student to participate in the AWS Educate Program.
Is There a Free AWS Account Without a Credit Card?
The AWS Free Tier does not require a credit card to sign up. However, customers may be required to enter one to use some services because AWS may issue a bill if they exceed free usage limits.
If customers limit their usage to the free tier limits, AWS will make no charges at all.
Leverage the Potential of AWS Cloud for Your Business
AWS has become one of the leading cloud computing platforms in the world today. Certainly, it enables its customers to host applications and data with scalability, flexibility, and affordability.
In this article, we have explored in detail what AWS is, from its origins to its current impact, how it compares to regular hosting and its usefulness for businesses of all sizes. Moreover, we delved into crucial details such as its many data centers, which programming languages allow and its pricing model.
Now, we invite you to take action and consider how adopting the cloud can propel your organization toward new horizons of efficiency, scalability, and security.
The cloud allows companies to innovate, grow nimbly, and adapt to market changes. Therefore, this is the perfect time to consider and implement the cloud in your organization. Unleash AWS’ limitless potential for growth and transformation!
Subscribe to Our Email List
Subscribe to our email list in the form below to get free articles, updates and insights about new technologies.