Amazon Web Services

Amazon Web Services

Launched in 2006, Amazon Web Services is a pioneer cloud solution provider. It is a subsidiary company of Amazon.com and is perhaps is one of the biggest player in the cloud computing market. It is providing on-demand cloud computing platform to governments, companies and individuals on paid subscriptions.

A cloud platform like Amazon Web Service allow its users to access servers, databases, application services and storage over the internet. It  allows requisitioning of computing power, storage and many other services within minutes, with no hidden or up-front expenses. The services work on pay for you use basis.

Since its launch AWS has grown rapidly catering to thousands of clients in over 190 countries. Many well-known organizations, like Zoopla, Hailo, Shell, Shop Direct, Unilever and many more use AWS services.

Amazon Web Services

Some of the widely used AWS are:

Amazon Elastic Computer Cloud (EC2) : It is designed to ensure smooth web-scale computing for  system administrators and developers. It provides them with tools to design and build the best failure resistant applications.

Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) : Amazon S3 is internet storage. It provides very simple web service interface for storing and retrieving any amount of data, anytime, from anywhere.

Amazon CloudFront : This is primarily web content delivery service. It is optimized to work seamlessly with all other Amazon Web services to give businesses an efficient and easy way to distribute their content with high speed data transfers and low latency.

Amazon Relational Database Service (Amazon RDS) : It gives freedom from traditional time-consuming database administration by providing this web service, which is easy to set up and operate a relational database in the cloud. The capabilities and tools of popular database services like Oracle, MySQL or SQL Server can be used with Amazon Relational Database Service.

Amazon Elastic MapReduce (Amazon EMR) :  This is another web service, which is quick, efficient and cost-effective in processing large amounts of data.

Amazon Simple Notification Service (Amazon SNS) : SNS is a push messaging service. It is quick, flexible, simple and cost-effective in sending push messages to mobile devices such as iPad, iPhone, Kindle Fire and internet connected mobile devices. SNS can also send notifications through email or SMS.

Amazon Simple Queue Service (Amazon SQS) : SQS is designed to transfer any volume of data, at any level without losing any information. It is fast and reliable message queuing service.

Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (Amazon VPC) : Using AWS resources, Amazon VPC allows the user to create a personal virtual network. The user can have complete control over this virtual network.

AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) :  IAM empowers the user / administrator to control the access of AWS resources and services. Using IAM, user can efficiently manage AWS users, create and manage groups, grant or deny permissions to access AWS resources.

Businesses across the globe are using Amazon Web Services for almost everything from running websites to running and maintaining their technology infrastructure. AWS is also being used by many educational institutes, public sector departments and non-profit  organizations for its benefits and efficiency. For example, in UK - Amazon Web Services work very closely with Cancer Research UK and research projects like Genes in Space.