aws

Introduction

Amazon Web Services (AWS) is Amazon’s cloud computing platform. It provides on-demand infrastructure and managed services over the Internet, so users can provision compute, storage, databases, networking, security, analytics, machine learning, and application services without buying and operating physical data centers directly.

AWS is commonly used to host applications, run virtual machines and containers, store data, build data pipelines, manage databases, deliver content, operate IoT systems, and run machine learning workloads. The main operating model is elastic capacity: resources can be created, scaled, and removed as demand changes, with pricing generally based on usage.

Core concepts:

• Account - the security and billing boundary for AWS resources.
• Region - a geographic location that contains multiple Availability Zones.
• Availability Zone - one or more isolated data centers inside a Region.
• Service - a managed capability such as compute, storage, database, or networking.
• Resource - an instance of a service, such as an EC2 instance, S3 bucket, VPC, or IAM role.
• Identity and permissions - controlled primarily through IAM users, groups, roles, and policies.
• Shared responsibility model - AWS is responsible for security of the cloud; customers are responsible for security in the cloud.

Common service areas:

• AWS Global Infrastructure - Regions, Availability Zones, Local Zones, edge locations, and Outposts.
• AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) - authentication, authorization, roles, policies, and credentials.
• AWS Compute - virtual machines, containers, serverless functions, and batch workloads.
• AWS Networking - VPCs, subnets, routing, load balancing, NAT, and private connectivity.
• AWS Storage - object, block, file, local, and hybrid storage.
• AWS Databases - managed relational, NoSQL, cache, data warehouse, and graph database services.
• AWS security services - monitoring, threat detection, compliance, key management, and security posture tools.
• AWS Cloud Management services - account governance, configuration, monitoring, automation, and operations.
• AWS Billing and Pricing - pay-as-you-go cost model, pricing tools, budgets, and consolidated billing.

Typical first steps:

1. Create an AWS account and secure the root user with MFA.
2. Create IAM users or roles with least-privilege permissions.
3. Choose a Region close to users or required by compliance.
4. Build a basic network with a VPC, subnets, route tables, and security controls.
5. Start with one workload, monitor cost and logs, then iterate.