AWS is the market-leading cloud infrastructure provider, powering everything from startups to Fortune 500 companies with on-demand computing resources.
Why it matters
- Eliminates upfront capital expenditure for hardware and data centers.
- Provides global infrastructure with 30+ geographic regions for low-latency access.
- Offers pay-as-you-go pricing that scales with your actual usage.
- Enables rapid experimentation and deployment without procurement delays.
Core service categories
- Compute: EC2 virtual servers, Lambda serverless functions, ECS/EKS container orchestration.
- Storage: S3 object storage, EBS block storage, Glacier archival.
- Database: RDS managed databases, DynamoDB NoSQL, Aurora high-performance relational.
- Networking: VPC private networks, CloudFront CDN, Route 53 DNS.
- Security: IAM access management, KMS encryption, GuardDuty threat detection.
When to use AWS
- You need enterprise-grade infrastructure without managing hardware.
- Your workloads require global availability and disaster recovery.
- You want to leverage managed services to reduce operational overhead.
- Compliance requirements demand industry-recognized certifications (SOC 2, HIPAA, PCI DSS).
Common pitfalls
- Leaving default IAM permissions too permissive.
- Forgetting to enable encryption at rest and in transit.
- Not implementing proper cost monitoring and budget alerts.
- Overlooking the shared responsibility model for security.
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View all termsAPI Gateway
A service that acts as a single entry point for API requests, handling routing, authentication, rate limiting, and other cross-cutting concerns.
Read more →Azure (Microsoft Azure)
Microsoft's cloud computing platform providing integrated services for compute, analytics, storage, networking, AI, and enterprise applications.
Read more →CDN (Content Delivery Network)
A geographically distributed network of servers that cache and deliver web content from locations closest to end users, improving performance and reliability.
Read more →Docker
A platform for developing, shipping, and running applications in lightweight, portable containers that package code with all its dependencies.
Read more →Kubernetes
An open-source container orchestration platform that automates deployment, scaling, and management of containerized applications across clusters of hosts.
Read more →Load Balancer
A system that distributes incoming network traffic across multiple servers to ensure high availability, reliability, and optimal resource utilization.
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