written 5.4 years ago by |
Amazon Web Services (AWS) provides infrastructure-as-a-service (Iaas) offerings in the cloud for organizations requiring computing power, storage, and other services. According to Amazon, AWS allows you to "take advantage of Amazon.com's global computing infrastructure," which is the heart of Amazon.com's retail business and transactional enterprise.
AWS offers a number of infrastructure-related services, including the following,
Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2)
EC2 is a web service that provides resizable compute capacity in the cloud. EC2 allows scalable deployment of applications by providing a web services interface through which customers can create virtual machines (VMs) - that is, server instances - on which the customer can load any software of her choice. A customer can create, launch, and terminate server instances as needed, paying by the hour for active servers.
Simple Storage Service (S3)
S3 provides a web services interface that can be used to store and retrieve unlimited amounts of data, at any time, from anywhere on the Web.
Simple Queue Service (SQS)
SQS is a distributed queue messaging service that supports the programmatic sending of messages via web services applications as a way to communicate over the Internet. The intent of SQS is to provide a scalable hosted message queue that resolves issues arising from the common producer-consumer problem or connectivity between producers and consumers.
CloudFront
CloudFront is a content delivery network that delivers your content using a global network of edge locations. Requests for objects are automatically routed to the nearest edge location, so content is delivered with the best possible performance. CloudFront works with S3 which durably stores the original, definitive versions of files.
SimpleDB
SimpleDB is a web service providing the core database functions of data indexing and querying. This service works in close conjunction with S3 and Ec2 , collectively providing the ability to store, process, and query data sets in the cloud, making web-scale computing easier and more cost-effective for developers.
There are a number of potential use cases to consider when discussing AWS, as outlined in below table,
Use case | Use case description | Service(s) |
---|---|---|
Web/application hosting | Web/application vendors can leverage the AWS infrastructure for computing power and storage as an alternative to internally hosting their applications. This can result in cost savings and efficiencies associated with managing infrastructure and time to market. | EC2,S3 SimpleDB, SQS |
Backup and storage | Organizations can leverage AWS as an option for managing internal backup and storage as an alternative to an on-site storage infrastructure. Though storage hardware costs are generally decreasing, the size of productivity and media files is growing, which is resulting in exponential increases in storage needs. | S3 |
Content delivery | Organizations involved in content delivery, such as streaming media, can leverage the AWS worldwide network of edge servers to minimize degradation of delivery and service. | Clod Front, S3 |
High-performance computing | Organizations that have high performance computing requirements can leverage AWs computing power on demand to process large amounts of data without having to create an internal infrastructure. This can result in cost savings and efficiencies associated with usage and time to market. | EC2, S3 |
Media hosting | Organizations that are involved in the distribution and storage of media files can leverage AWS to offset the unpredictable requirements related to storage and processing. | EC2, S3, SQS, CloudFront |
MapReduce | This is a web service that enables businesses, researchers, data analysts, and developers to process a vast amount of data utilizing a Hadoop framework. | EC2, S3 |
Cloud "bursting" | This is the ability to deal with rapid spikes in processing demands | EC2 |
With regard to pricing, AWS is based on consumption as defined by the type of service provided, and the rates are posted online. Additionally, AWS services are based on platform flexibility, allowing the customer to choose the appropriate operating system, programming model, and so forth to meet her needs.