Amazon Web Services (AWS), the cloud platform offered by Amazon.com Inc (AMZN), has become a giant component of the e-commerce giant's business portfolio. Amazon Web Services in short AWS, the best-in-market Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) company that has grown to spread across 190 countries since its launch. Businesses no longer have to plan for IT infrastructure such as servers in advance. They can access thousands of servers virtually within minutes by leveraging the power of cloud computing. And while AWS is the top choice for businesses.
In the first quarter of 2020, AWS brought in a record $10 billion of revenue, accounting for 13.5% of Amazon's total revenue. Having grown steadily in the 30-per cent range the past few quarters, AWS is a frontrunner to other cloud computing platforms such as competitor Microsoft Azure.
What is AWS?
AWS is made up of so many different cloud computing products and services. The highly profitable Amazon division provides servers, storage, networking, remote computing, email, mobile development, and security. AWS can be broken into three main products: EC2, Amazon’s virtual machine service, Glacier, a low-cost cloud storage service, and S3, Amazon’s storage system. AWS is so large and present in the computing world that it's far outpaced its competitors. As of February 2020, one independent analyst reports AWS has over a third of the market at 32.4%, with Azure following behind at half that amount 17.6%, and Google Cloud at 6%.
AWS has 76 availability zones in which its servers are located. These serviced regions are divided in order to allow users to set geographical limits on their services (if they so choose), but also to provide security by diversifying the physical locations in which data is held. Overall, AWS spans 245 countries and territories.
Why AWS?
- Enhanced Security
Amazon Web Services make for a durable and secure technology platform. To ensure the safety and integrity of your data, Amazon’s data centres and services have several layers of physical and operational security. AWS also conducts regular audits to ensure its infrastructural security.
It has also implemented best practices in security along with offering documentation on how to deploy the security AWS features. It ensures the availability, integrity, and confidentiality of your data and provides end-to-end privacy and security.
- Cost-Effectiveness
One of the most promising Amazon Web Services advantages includes its pay-as-you-go pricing model. This implies that you pay only for the specific service that you subscribe to and only for the time you need it for. This is a step forward towards an agile-driven product development organization.
- Flexibility and Openness
Amazon web services are platform-agnostic to operating systems and languages. You can select the programming model or development platform that can be most beneficial for your business.
Businesses receive a virtual environment that lets them access software and services that the specific application requires. Thus, no restrictions or rigid protocols when subscribing to Amazon cloud services that not only help ease migration but also help build new solutions.
- Elasticity and Scalability
AWS cloud lets you iterate, experiment, and innovate quickly through its huge global cloud infrastructure. To leverage scalability, AWS can easily manage the workload increase by allocating the resources based on the demand, that too within minutes. You can also use new apps rather than wait for months for hardware and avoid resource provisioning upfront for projects with short lifetimes and variable consumption rates.
A Few AWS Case Studies
Let's have a closer look at some of AWS's biggest clients:
- Airbnb
It’s not just long-established companies using AWS to run their compute estate. Airbnb, a community rental marketplace for property owners and travellers, lists more than 7 million accommodations and is a long-time user of AWS.
Catering to millions of customers globally, the firm has continued to invest in AWS solutions as it has grown rapidly in the past few years. Currently, it has 200 Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud instances to manage its core application, Memcache and search servers; Elastic Load Balancing for handling incoming traffic between these servers; Amazon Elastic MapReduce for processing and disseminating data; Amazon Simple Storage Service for backups and static files; and Amazon CloudWatch.
Since implementing these solutions, Airbnb takes the view that it’s better equipped for future growth and can save money across its operations. Tobi Knaup, an engineer at Airbnb, said: “Because of AWS, there has always been an easy answer (in terms of time required and cost) to scale our site.”
- Apple
When it comes to any aspect of its business, Apple is pretty secretive. But according to a 2019 report by CNBC, it happens to be one of the biggest spenders on AWS services. People familiar with the setup told the American broadcaster that the Cupertino-based firm spends over $30 million per month on Amazon cloud computing services.
The iPhone maker hasn’t confirmed these claims, but with the growing demand for internet services such as iCloud and Apple Music, it makes sense that the firm would need a comprehensive cloud solution. CNBC points out that Apple has worked with other cloud providers, including Google and Microsoft, in the past.
The Bottom Line
In the current market space where on-demand services are on the rise, Amazon Web Services (AWS) has emerged as a viable solution for businesses looking for reliable, scalable, and inexpensive cloud computing services. Whether you are a startup or an established enterprise, AWS is an ideal solution that can offer extensive cost savings, maximum uptime, and continuous support – a great return on investment, indeed.