Amazon Web Services (AWS) is a cloud platform that provides subscription services to users. The list of services includes both infrastructure solutions (for example, servers and storage) and ready-made platforms (databases, development environment, etc.).
AWS entered the market in 2006 and currently ranks second in terms of capacity provided.
List of services
1. Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2). The service provides subscribers with virtual server platforms, data storage systems and a load balancer. Users can choose either a pre-configured server with a pre-installed operating system, or build it themselves. The service also allows you to create your own images or use your own OS. To ensure security, subscribers can restrict access to EC2 servers by IP addresses.
The cost of the service is paid for every hour, and some options are paid on a monthly basis. If the customer plans to use EC2, it is recommended to use the reservation function. The subscriber pays for 3 months of work at once, and the final cost becomes one and a half times lower.
2. Simple Storage (S3) provides subscribers with distributed disk space with a maximum capacity of 5 TB. S3 stores files in so-called buckets, which are located on different Amazon sites.
The service keeps a permanent log of all operations on the storage and stores the information in a special bucket. This allows customers to immediately receive detailed information about recent transactions. A distinctive feature of the service is the replacement of the http protocol with BitTorrent for downloading files.
Subscribers can independently choose the security policies that apply to buckets. This allows you to delimit user access rights, make the cloud completely private, and so on. Payment for the service is charged monthly. The cost depends on the amount of disk space, the number of requests and outgoing traffic.
3. The Relational Database Service provides users with a virtual database that is located on a dedicated server. At the same time, the platform is configured and optimized for the selected database. The minimum size of the disk space for the database is 5 TB.
Access is configured depending on user preferences and security policies. For example, customers can allow connection only from certain IP addresses (subnets) or for those security groups that are specified in the EC2 service.
Subscribers have access to SnapShot functions, replication (asynchronous and synchronous), automatic data backup and metrocluster.
Payment is made in the same way as the EC2 service — hourly. If you pay for three or more months in advance, the total cost is reduced by one and a half times. Additional functions are charged separately.
4. Route 53 gives users the ability to raise a DNS server in the Amazon cloud. The service is easily integrated with other AWS services.
Payment is charged for the number of requests to the server, but there is also a free limit.
Amazon Web Services provides users with most cloud solutions at an affordable price. Reliability and fault tolerance are guaranteed at the level of “six nines” (99.9999%). The client can flexibly configure the required list of available services by selecting only the necessary ones. Each service has its own personal limit (Free Tier), which significantly reduces the cost of the service provided.