Introduction to AWS
Introduction
AWS (Amazon Web Services) is a comprehensive and evolving cloud computing platform provided by Amazon. It offers a range of services including computing, storage, networking, databases, analytics, machine learning, security, and many others to help organizations build and run their applications and services in the cloud.
AWS provides a global infrastructure of data centers located in different regions around the world, which allows users to deploy their applications and services closer to their end-users, reducing latency and improving performance.
AWS offers a pay-as-you-go model, which means that users only pay for the resources they use, without the need for upfront investments in hardware and infrastructure.
Some of the popular AWS services include Amazon EC2 (Elastic Compute Cloud) for scalable computing capacity, Amazon S3 (Simple Storage Service) for object storage, Amazon RDS (Relational Database Service) for managed relational databases, and Amazon SageMaker for machine learning.
AWS also provides a rich set of tools and APIs to help developers build, test, and deploy their applications and services faster and more efficiently. These tools include AWS CloudFormation for infrastructure as code, AWS CodeDeploy for automating application deployment, and AWS Lambda for serverless computing.
Overall, AWS provides a powerful and flexible cloud computing platform that can help businesses of all sizes to scale their operations, improve agility, and reduce costs.
This article focuses on the following pointers:
- What is AWS
- How to sign up on AWS
- What are the Services provided by AWS
- Networking and Content Delivery Services:
What is AWS?
AWS (Amazon Web Services) is a collection of remote computing services (also called web services) that make up a cloud computing platform, offered by Amazon.com. These services operate from 12 geographical regions across the world. The most central and well-known of these services arguably include Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) and Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3).
The most complete and widely used cloud platform in the world, Amazon Web Services (AWS), provides over 200 fully functional services from data centers worldwide. Millions of clients use AWS to save costs, increase agility, and accelerate innovation, including the largest corporations, most successful governmental organizations, and the fastest-growing startups.
How to sign up on AWS?
Step 1: Go to aws.amazon.com and click on Create an AWS Account.
Now, since you have an AWS account at your disposal, why not do some hands-on?
EC2 (Elastic Compute Cloud) is a compute service offered by AWS which provides resizable compute capacity in the cloud.
Every customer from the time he registers on AWS receives the free tier option and is eligible for the same for 1 year from the time he registers.
You can try every application in AWS and learn! The more you practice, the more you learn, what is AWS.
AWS enables developers to rent virtual computing resources by the hour, minute, or second, and only pay for what they actually use. This allows for more flexibility and cost savings compared to traditional on-premises or colocation data centers.
Here is a simple example of how to launch an EC2 instance using the AWS SDK for Python (Boto3):
import boto3
# Create an EC2 client
ec2 = boto3.client('ec2')
# Launch a new EC2 instance
response = ec2.run_instances(
ImageId='ami-0ff8a91507f77f867',
InstanceType='t2.micro',
MinCount=1,
MaxCount=1
)
# Print the instance's ID
instance_id = response['Instances'][0]['InstanceId']
print(f'Launched EC2 instance with ID: {instance_id}')
AWS also offers a wide range of services such as databases (RDS, DynamoDB), analytics (Redshift, Kinesis), application services (SNS, SQS, Lambda), and many more.
AWS is the most widely used cloud computing platform, so it’s highly recommended for developers and businesses learn about the services and tools offered.
What are the Services provided by AWS?
Each type of service in this blog, is categorized under a domain, the few domains which are widely used are:
- Compute
- Storage
- Database
- Migration
- Network and Content Delivery
- Management Tools
- Security & Identity Compliance
- Messaging
Compute Services:
The Compute domain includes services related to computing workloads, it includes the following services:
- EC2 (Elastic Compute Cloud)
- Lambda
- Elastic Beanstalk
- Amazon LightSail
Storage Services:
The Storage domain includes services related to data storage, it includes the following services:
- S3 (Simple Storage Service)
- Elastic Block Store
- Amazon Glacier
- AWS Snowball
Database Services:
The Database domain is used for database-related workloads, it includes the following services:
Migration Services:
The Migration domain is used for transferring data to or from the AWS Infrastructure, it includes the following services:
- AWS Database Migration Service
- AWS SnowBall
- For details, You can even check out the details of Migrating to AWS with the AWS Cloud Migration Certification.
Networking and Content Delivery Services:
The Networking and Content Delivery domain is used for isolating your network infrastructure, and content delivery is used for faster delivery of content. It includes the following services:
Management Tools:
The Management Tools domain consists of services that are used to manage other services in AWS, it includes the following services:
- AWS CloudWatch
- AWS CloudFomation
- AWS CloudTrail
Security & Identity, Compliance Services:
The Security & Identity, Compliance domain consist of services that are used to manage to authenticate and provide security to your AWS resources. It consists of the following services:
- AWS IAM
- AWS KMS
- AWS Shield
The Messaging domain consists of services that are used for queuing, notifying, or emailing messages. It consists of the following domains:
- Amazon SQS
- Amazon SNS
- Amazon SES
- Amazon Pinpoint
Messaging Services:
Another example of a popular service in AWS is Amazon S3, which stands for Simple Storage Service. S3 is an object storage service that allows developers to store and retrieve data in the form of objects. This can include images, videos, documents, and other types of files.
Here is an example of how to upload a file to an S3 bucket using the AWS SDK for Python (Boto3):
import boto3
# Create an S3 client
s3 = boto3.client('s3')
# Upload a file to an S3 bucket
with open('example.txt', 'rb') as data:
s3.upload_fileobj(data, 'my-bucket', 'example.txt')
print("File uploaded!")
AWS also offers a variety of tools for managing and interacting with S3, such as the AWS Management Console, AWS CLI, and S3 APIs.
Another service that is quite popular in AWS is AWS Lambda, which is a serverless computing service that allows developers to run code without provisioning or managing servers.
Here is an example of how to create a simple Lambda function using the AWS SDK for Python (Boto3):
import boto3
def lambda_handler(event, context):
message = 'Hello, World!'
return {'message': message}
# Create a Lambda client
lambda_client = boto3.client('lambda')
# Create a new Lambda function
response = lambda_client.create_function(
FunctionName='hello_world',
Runtime='python3.8',
Role='arn:aws:iam::<ACCOUNT_ID>:role/<ROLE_NAME>',
Handler='lambda_function.lambda_handler',
Code={
'ZipFile': open('lambda_function.zip', 'rb').read()
}
)
# Print the function's ARN
function_arn = response['FunctionArn']
print(f'Created Lambda function with ARN: {function_arn}')
These are just a few examples of the many services and tools available in AWS. With the flexibility and scalability provided by the AWS platform, it’s no surprise that it is the go-to choice for many businesses and developers.
Advantages of AWS
Easy to use
AWS is made to enable suppliers, ISVs, and application providers to swiftly and securely host your apps, whether they are SaaS-based or not. To access AWS’s application hosting platform, use the AWS Management Console or well-documented web services APIs.
Flexible
You can choose the web application platform, programming language, operating system, database, and other services you require with AWS. You get a virtual environment through AWS that you may fill with the programs and services your application needs. As a result, existing applications can be more easily migrated while still having alternatives for developing new solutions.
Cost-Effective
There are no long-term contracts or upfront payments; you simply pay for the computing power, storage, and other resources that you really utilize. Visit the AWS Economics Center for further details on comparing the expenses of other hosting options with those of AWS.
Reliable
You can benefit from a scalable, reliable, and secure global computing infrastructure with AWS, which serves as the virtual foundation for Amazon.com’s multi-billion dollar online company and has been refined for more than ten years.
Scalable and high-performance
Your application can scale up or down depending on demand using AWS technologies like Auto Scaling and Elastic Load Balancing. You get immediate access to computation and storage resources thanks to Amazon’s extensive infrastructure.
Secure
Physical, operational, and software safeguards are all used by AWS to secure and harden our infrastructure. The AWS Security Center has more details.
Applications of AWS
Businesses of any size and sector may create complex applications with AWS, from hyper-scale web applications to big data analytical apps. Here are a few of the typical AWS applications:
- Storage and backup – For organizations, Amazon’s cloud storage is a convenient and practical offering. It can save important data and gives a variety of storage options based on needs. AWS provides storage, operating essential business applications, file indexing functionality, high-performance writing or reading, and archiving.
- Enterprise IT – Amazon cloud services provide the perfect remedy for the cumbersome pace of enterprise IT. AWS makes it possible to build, test, and run auxiliary processes quickly in the cloud. It quickens the project’s launch and gives it an advantage over rivals.
- Mobile, Web, and Social Applications – Unlike other cloud services, AWS can create and scale a wide range of applications, including SaaS, mobile, and e-commerce ones. On serverless platforms, new applications can be created without the use of an operating system or other systems. Scalable apps can also be developed on AWS using API-driven programming.
- Big Data – AWS’s scalable storage makes it possible to conduct more frequent analytics. It is ideal for creating data lakes or warehouses because it doesn’t take up much space or require much work to index. Together, AWS and Big Data provide the strength and infrastructure required to support sophisticated intelligent applications.
- Websites – The AWS cloud can be used to host websites. Additionally, it works well for hosting domains, DNS, and CDNs.
- Gaming – Online connectivity and a lot of processing power are needed for gaming applications. AWS makes it simple to access the global gaming network and offers players the best global online gaming experience.
You have a fair idea now about what is AWS, and the services which are covered in AWS, let’s go ahead and straightaway apply this knowledge to build applications. You might feel that you don’t know much about AWS, but then,
Sometimes you have to run before you can walk!
let’s understand how one builds applications in AWS. You can get a better understanding of AWS and its services from the AWS Cloud Certification.
Another important service in AWS is Amazon RDS (Relational Database Service). RDS is a fully managed relational database service that makes it easy to set up, operate, and scale a relational database in the cloud. It supports multiple database engines including MySQL, PostgreSQL, Oracle, and Microsoft SQL Server.
Here is an example of how to create a new RDS instance using the AWS SDK for Python (Boto3):
import boto3
# Create an RDS client
rds = boto3.client('rds')
# Create a new RDS instance
response = rds.create_db_instance(
DBInstanceIdentifier='mydbinstance',
MasterUsername='admin',
MasterUserPassword='password',
DBName='mydb',
Engine='mysql',
DBInstanceClass='db.t2.micro',
AllocatedStorage=5
)
# Print the RDS instance's endpoint
endpoint = response['DBInstance']['Endpoint']['Address']
print(f'Created RDS instance with endpoint: {endpoint}')
AWS also offers Amazon Elastic Container Service (ECS) and Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service (EKS) for running containerized applications. With ECS, you can easily run and scale Docker containers on AWS. EKS, on the other hand, makes it easy to run Kubernetes clusters on AWS.
AWS also offers a number of services for machine learning and artificial intelligence such as Amazon SageMaker, Amazon Rekognition, Amazon Comprehend, and Amazon Translate. These services allow developers to easily build and deploy machine learning models in the cloud.
AWS also offers services for monitoring, logging, and security such as Amazon CloudWatch, AWS CloudTrail, Amazon Inspector, and Amazon GuardDuty. These services allow you to monitor and analyze the performance of your AWS resources and applications, track changes to your AWS resources, and detect and respond to security threats.
AWS also offers a number of services for networking, content delivery, and domain registration such as Amazon VPC, AWS Direct Connect, Amazon Route 53, and Amazon CloudFront. These services allow you to create and manage virtual networks, establish private connections between your data center and the AWS Cloud, register domain names, and distribute content to users globally.
As you can see, AWS offers a wide range of services that cover a wide range of use cases, making it a one-stop shop for cloud computing needs.
How to build applications in AWS?
First and foremost, you should analyze, what is your application about. Is it something that requires you to be worried about the underlying infrastructure? Is it something that requires a database? Is it something that will require monitoring?
So, once you know all the requirements of your application, you can pick the domain, and hence choose a service.
For example, if you want to deploy an application in AWS, which does not require you to worry about the underlying architecture, which service will you choose?
Well, in the compute section there is this service called Elastic Beanstalk. You just upload your application, and AWS does the rest for you.
know about any of these services without using them right? That’s why AWS came up with an amazing free-tier option.
The things that you learned What is an AWS? Introduction to AWS & what is required in an AWS Interview. The more you practice the more you will learn. Datacademy provides a curriculum that covers exactly what you would need to crack the Solution Architect Exam! You can have a look at the detailed topic Wise AWS interview questions blogs from AWS.
