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What Is Amazon Web Services?
As a leading cloud service platform, Amazon Web Services (AWS) has transformed the way both businesses and individuals interact with and utilize technology. By providing flexible and readily available cloud computing resources and services, AWS has made technology infrastructure available to everyone by making it more accessible and reducing the high costs of hardware and infrastructure. Since its launch in 2006, AWS’s revenue has been consistently growing, surpassing 80 billion U.S. dollars in 2022! Given its wide use across different industries worldwide, it’s important to understand the significance of AWS services and how they can add value to your business.
Cloud Computing & The History Behind Amazon Web Services
Before we go too far, let’s first define cloud computing. Cloud computing refers to the delivery of computing services—including servers, storage, databases, networking, software, and more—over the internet (“the cloud”) to give individuals and businesses faster innovation, flexible resources, and cost advantages. As a current leader in the cloud computing realm, Amazon’s AWS Services first made an impact in 2006 with the launch of Amazon S3 (Simple Storage Service) and Amazon EC2 (Elastic Compute Cloud). These two marked the beginning of a range of cloud services that AWS now provides. Since then, AWS has been noted as a pioneer in the field and quickly expanded from its two services to more than 200 offerings, playing a crucial role in Amazon’s overall business strategy. Through innovation, and a focus on customer service, AWS consistently sets benchmarks and best practices within the industry.
AWS’s Growth Trajectory & Milestones
From humble beginnings in 2006, to holding 50.1% of the cloud infrastructure services market, here’s a quick glimpse at AWS’s growth trajectory and a few key milestones over the years:
Early Innovation: In its early days, AWS started off as a service that focused on providing infrastructure and storage, computing power, and even human assistance (through Amazon Mechanical Turk.)
Launch of EC2: The introduction of Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) in 2006 was a significant move for AWS as it provided computing resources in the cloud and represented a key advancement in cloud technology.
Expansion of Services: Over time AWS broadened its range of services to include solutions for storage, databases, machine learning, Internet of Things (IoT), and more across many sectors.
Global Expansion: With expansion efforts, AWS has established data centers across 31 global regions to deliver high speed services to customers around the world.
Now, AWS accounts for 16% of Amazon’s revenue.
The Inner Workings of AWS
AWS runs on a system of global data centers offering services like virtual servers and storage as needed. These services can be accessed online (hence the term ‘cloud computing’), which eliminates the need for companies to buy all the necessary equipment and allows them to quickly adapt and scale as needed. AWS effectively oversees these services to guarantee reliability. As an AWS user, you can adjust the scale of services according to their requirements making AWS a budget-friendly option that charges based on usage only.
Benefits of Using AWS
By running a network of data centers that supply virtual servers and storage resources on demand, AWS provides resources to businesses via the Internet. AWS is a popular choice because you can select the services you need the most based on your requirements. Opting for AWS as your cloud service provider comes with many benefits such as:
Scalability
Easily scale your operations up or down based on your business needs and objectives.
Flexibility
Cost Effectiveness
Reliability
Security
Global Reach
What are Amazon Web Services Used for? The Spectrum of AWS Services
If you’re wondering what Amazon Web Services are used for, they are grouped into categories such as computing, storage, databases, machine learning, and security to meet these types of online business requirements. AWS services are tailored to ensure efficient, secure, and high-performance networking capabilities across various deployment scenarios, including cloud, hybrid, and edge environments. On top of that, AWS services are specifically designed to collaborate with each other to give you a customized experience.
Compute Services
Compute services focus on providing scalable and flexible computing resources for various workloads. These services enable businesses to run applications, process data, and perform other computing tasks in the cloud.
Storage Services
Storage services offer scalable and secure solutions for storing and retrieving data. These services cater to different storage needs, including object storage, block storage, and archival storage.
Database Services
Database services encompass a variety of solutions for managing and accessing data. These services support both relational and non-relational databases, catering to different types of data and application requirements.
Machine Learning & AI Services
AI and machine learning services provide tools and infrastructure for building, training, and deploying machine learning models. These services enable businesses to incorporate artificial intelligence and predictive analytics into their applications.
Security, Identity & Compliance Services
Security services focus on safeguarding cloud resources and data. These services include tools for managing user access, monitoring for security threats, and ensuring compliance with security best practices.
Networking and Content Delivery
The great thing about AWS services is that they are designed to work together, providing you with the ability to integrate and customize based on your unique requirements. Their comprehensive nature allows you to build, deploy, and manage applications with flexibility and scalability, all while ensuring security, reliability, and cost-effectiveness.
Who Can Benefit From AWS? Industries Transformed by AWS
With the ability to tailor the AWS offerings to your specific needs, many businesses across multiple industries are capitalizing on these services. Sectors like healthcare, finance, entertainment, and many others have all reaped the benefits of AWS. Let’s look at how AWS has been a game-changer in specific industries:
Healthcare
AWS services provide dedicated solutions for the healthcare industry, focusing on enhancing security, compliance, and innovation in healthcare IT systems. AWS has enabled healthcare organizations to securely store, process, and analyze sensitive patient data, facilitating better patient care and driving medical research and innovation.
Industrial
Various industrial sectors, including manufacturing, automotive, energy, power & utilities, transportation, and logistics, can benefit from AWS services by receiving digital transformation and operational optimization solutions.
Manufacturing
With AWS, the manufacturing sector has seen strengthened production processes and accelerated time-to-market. AWS has helped manufacturers transform their operations, improve efficiency, and drive innovation by leveraging cloud-based solutions for product design, smart factory, and smart products.
Media and Entertainment
AWS delivers purpose-built cloud capabilities and partner solutions tailored for the media and entertainment industry, supporting digital content creation, distribution, and audience engagement. AWS has empowered media and entertainment companies to transform their operations, enhance scalability, and deliver superior customer experiences through advanced cloud technologies. For instance, by transitioning to AWS, Netflix reduced its data center expenses by 22%.
The top AWS Services List
With over 200 fully featured services available from AWS, let’s review a list of AWS services that are the most demanded and popular:
Amazon EC2 (Elastic Compute Cloud)
This service provides scalable cloud-based compute capacity. In essence, EC2 lets you “rent” virtual computers to run your applications through.
AWS Lambda
AWS Lambda is a serverless computing service that lets you run your code without having to manage servers. It automatically scales and runs code in response to triggers, handling the infrastructure management tasks.
Amazon OpenSearch
OpenSearch is a service that helps you deploy, secure, and run OpenSearch clusters efficiently on a scale. It streamlines the setup, management, and expansion of OpenSearch clusters.
Amazon EKS
EKS is a managed service designed to simplify the deployment, management, and scaling of applications using Kubernetes.
Amazon ECS
ECS is a highly scalable, fast container management service that makes it easy to run, stop, and manage Docker containers on a cluster.
Amazon CloudFront
CloudFront functions as a content delivery network (CDN) service that ensures the distribution of data, videos, applications and APIs to users worldwide with minimal delays and swift data transfer rates.
Amazon API Gateway
API Gateway is fully managed, an all-in-one service that helps software developers create, publish, maintain, monitor, and secure APIs at any scale.
Amazon S3 (Simple Storage Service)
S3 is an uncomplicated storage solution that provides available storage infrastructure that scales infinitely at minimal costs.
AWS DynamoDB
DynamoDB is a rapid and adaptable NoSQL database solution that’s suitable for applications requiring low latency performance of any size.
AWS Fargate
Fargate is a serverless computing platform designed for containers that seamlessly integrates with Amazon’s Elastic Container Service (ECS) and Elastic Kubernetes Service (EKS).
AWS Serverless Services
This category includes offerings like AWS Lambda and Amazon API Gateway, enabling developers to build and deploy applications without the need to manage their own in-house servers. These services, along with others, serve as the foundation of AWS’s range of options to meet your computing requirements. If you’d like to know more about all AWS services available, click here.
Getting Started with AWS
Do the top AWS services intrigue you but you’re not sure where to start? Engaging with a top tier AWS Partner can greatly simplify your ease into—or enhancement of—your AWS cloud setup. Companies like Scopic offer AWS Partner solutions, strategic advice, and continuous assistance to ensure you’re optimizing the benefits that AWS services provide. AWS has significantly impacted cloud computing by providing a wide range of scalable resources and services. Whether you’re a startup seeking innovation, a business looking to expand, or a public sector entity aiming to enhance its services, AWS delivers the tools, resources, and expertise needed to reach your objectives. The realm of AWS is expansive and always evolving, presenting countless opportunities for those to delve into it. So why wait? Begin exploring the potential with AWS today!
About creating the “A Guide to AWS Services & AWS Advanced Tier Service Partners” article:
This guide was authored by Lesley Comeau, Marketing Specialist, and reviewed by Enedia Oshafi, Director of Business Development.
Scopic provides quality and informative content, powered by our deep-rooted expertise in software development. Our team of content writers and experts have great knowledge in the latest software technologies, allowing them to break down even the most complex topics in the field. They also know how to tackle topics from a wide range of industries, capture their essence, and deliver valuable content across all digital platforms.
