AWS for DevOps — What is AWS?
What is AWS?
Amazon Web Services (AWS) is a cloud computing platform provided by Amazon that offers on-demand computing resources — servers, storage, databases, networking, and more — over the internet. Instead of buying and maintaining physical hardware, you rent what you need and pay only for what you use.
The One-Sentence Summary
AWS lets you build, deploy, and manage applications on Amazon’s global infrastructure without owning a single server.
Why AWS Dominates Cloud Computing
AWS launched in 2006 with two services — S3 (storage) and EC2 (virtual servers). Today it offers over 200 services and holds roughly 31% of the global cloud market share — more than Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud combined.
| Metric | Detail |
|---|---|
| Launch year | 2006 |
| Services | 200+ |
| Market share | ~31% (2025) |
| Regions | 33+ |
| Availability Zones | 100+ |
| Customers | Millions (Netflix, Airbnb, NASA, Capital One) |
Cloud Computing — What It Actually Means
Before cloud, companies bought physical servers, placed them in data centres, and hired teams to manage them. This is called on-premise (or “on-prem”) infrastructure.
Cloud computing flips this model:
| Aspect | On-Premise | Cloud (AWS) |
|---|---|---|
| Hardware | You buy it | AWS owns it |
| Capacity | Fixed (buy for peak) | Elastic (scale up/down) |
| Pricing | Upfront CapEx | Pay-as-you-go (OpEx) |
| Time to provision | Weeks/months | Minutes/seconds |
| Maintenance | Your team | AWS team |
| Global reach | Build your own DCs | 33+ regions ready to use |
Real-World Analogy
Think of AWS like electricity from the power grid:
- You do not build a power plant to run your lights.
- You plug into the grid, use what you need, and pay for what you consume.
- If you need more power (holiday lights), the grid scales — no hardware purchase required.
AWS is the same, but for computing. Need 1 server? Spin it up. Need 1,000 servers for a load test? Spin them up. Done? Shut them down. Pay only for the hours used.
Key AWS Service Categories for DevOps
AWS has over 200 services, but DevOps engineers primarily work with these categories:
| Category | Key Services | What They Do |
|---|---|---|
| Compute | EC2, Lambda, ECS, EKS | Run applications |
| Storage | S3, EBS, EFS | Store data and artifacts |
| Networking | VPC, Route 53, CloudFront, ALB | Connect and route traffic |
| CI/CD | CodePipeline, CodeBuild, CodeDeploy | Automate build and deployment |
| IaC | CloudFormation, CDK | Automate infrastructure |
| Monitoring | CloudWatch, CloudTrail, X-Ray | Observe and audit |
| Security | IAM, KMS, GuardDuty, Security Hub | Protect resources |
| Containers | ECS, EKS, ECR, Fargate | Run containerised workloads |
| Serverless | Lambda, API Gateway, DynamoDB | Run without managing servers |
AWS Management Console
The AWS Management Console is the web-based UI where you manage all AWS services. You access it at console.aws.amazon.com.
Key areas:
- Search bar — fastest way to find any service (type “EC2”, “S3”, “IAM”)
- Region selector — top-right corner, choose where resources are created
- Account menu — top-right, manage account settings, billing, security
Tip: The Console is great for learning and exploring. For production automation, use the AWS CLI or CloudFormation — never click-and-deploy in production.
Quick Reference
| Concept | Value |
|---|---|
| What | Cloud computing platform by Amazon |
| Services | 200+ (compute, storage, networking, databases, ML, etc.) |
| Pricing | Pay-as-you-go, per-second/per-hour billing |
| Access methods | Console (web UI), CLI, SDKs, CloudFormation |
| Key DevOps benefit | Automate everything — infrastructure, deployments, monitoring |
Next → AWS Global Infrastructure
