Everything You Need to Know About Amazon Web Services (AWS)

Introduction

Amazon Web Services (AWS) is the most comprehensive and widely used cloud platform in the world, with over 200 fully featured services from datacenters worldwide. This article covers detailed knowledge of Amazon Web Services (AWS).

What is Cloud Computing?

Cloud computing delivers online services to users (such as servers, databases, and software). Data storage on local machines is no longer necessary due to cloud computing. It allows you to access data stored on a remote server. Furthermore, it stores and access data from anywhere in the world.

What is AWS?

AWS is a widely used cloud platform that provides several on-demand operations, such as compute power, database storage, content delivery, etc., to help businesses scale and grow.

What is AWS Used for?

AWS is commonly used for storage and backup, websites, gaming, mobile, web, and social media applications. The following are some of the essential applications in detail:

• Storage and Backup

One of the reasons many businesses use AWS is that it provides a variety of storage options that are also easily accessible. It can be used for storage, file indexing, and running critical business applications.

• Websites

Like other web applications, businesses can host their websites on the AWS cloud.

• Gaming

Running gaming applications necessitates a significant amount of computing power. AWS simplifies the process of providing the best online gaming experience to gamers all over the world.

• Artificial Intelligence
• Amazon Lex will provide both voice and text chatbot technology.
• Amazon Rekognition will be used to analyze the image and face.
• Internet of Things
• The Amazon Web Services IoT service provides a back-end platform for managing IoT devices and data ingestion to database services and AWS storage.
• AWS IoT Button provides hardware with limited IoT functionality.

AWS Certification

AWS certification is a level of cloud expertise obtained by an IT professional after passing one or more of the public cloud provider’s exams. AWS certifications enable IT professionals to demonstrate and validate technical cloud knowledge and skills.

Why Get AWS Certified?

Certifications are a great way to show skills to potential employers or advance the chosen career path. AWS certifications are among the most in-demand, with AWS dominating the world of cloud computing and many businesses migrating services to the cloud.

Are There Any Requirements To Take AWS Certifications?

AWS removed the prerequisites from all AWS certifications in 2019. You can now take any AWS certification without first completing another. However, the AWS certification learning paths are structured, and it is prudent to follow that structure to maximize the chances of success in the exams and ensure you have a good skill set to take into the working life.

Some popular AWS Certified courses include:

1. AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
2. AWS Certified Solutions Architect — Associate
3. AWS Certified Solutions Architect — Professional
4. AWS Certified Developer — Associate
5. AWS Certified SysOps Administrator — Associate
6. AWS Certified DevOps Engineer — Professional

AWS Services

• AWS DevOps

AWS offers flexible services designed to help businesses build and deliver products more quickly and reliably using AWS and DevOps practices. These services make it easier to provision and manage infrastructure, deploy application code, automate software release processes, and monitor the application and infrastructure performance.

AWS DevOps enables application development teams to efficiently implement Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery (CI/CD). This allows them to securely store and version application source code while automatically building, testing, and deploying the application to on-premises or AWS environments.

• Amazon EC2

Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) is a scalable computing capacity in the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Cloud. Using Amazon EC2 eliminates the need for upfront hardware purchases, allowing you to develop and deploy applications more quickly.

You can launch as many or as few virtual servers as you need, configure security and networking, and manage storage with Amazon EC2. Amazon EC2 allows you to scale up or down in response to changes in demand or popularity spikes, removing the need for traffic forecasting.

• Amazon S3 (Simple Storage Service)

Amazon S3 is a storage domain that provides data storage services over the Internet. S3 primarily stores data in the form of objects in the cloud. Due to its improved infrastructure, Amazon S3 stores data with high security. The information is dispersed across multiple physical regions and has a high level of integration. This prevents data loss and enables retrieval of stored data, regardless of time or space, via the Internet.

• Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (VPC)

Amazon VPC is an AWS Networking service that is used to isolate the network infrastructure of a user’s computer. Every Amazon account has its virtual network that prevents others from accessing the information. These networks are logically separated from other virtual networks in Amazon Web Services clouds.

• Amazon Relational Database Services (RDS)

Amazon RDS is a database service provided by Amazon Web Services to manage database workloads. RDS assists users in designing and managing relational databases in the cloud that store complex infrastructure data.

Basic AWS Interview Questions

1. What are the various types of load balancers available on AWS?

There are three types of load balancers that are supported by Elastic Load Balancing:

1. Application Load Balancer
2. Network Load Balancer
3. Classic Load Balancer

2. What AWS tools and techniques can you use to determine if you are paying too much and how to fix it?

By using the following resources, you can ensure that you are paying the correct amount for the resources you are using:

Check the Top Services Table

It is a dashboard within the cost management console that displays the top five most frequently used services. This will inform you of the money you spend on the resources in question.

Cost Explorer

Cost explorer services can help you view and analyze your usage costs for the previous 13 months. You can also obtain a cost forecast for the next three months.

AWS Budgets

This enables you to budget for the services. It will also allow you to determine whether the current plan meets your budget and the specifics of how you use the services.

Cost Allocation Tags

This aids in identifying the resource that has cost the most in a given month. It allows you to keep track of the AWS costs by organizing the resources and cost allocation tags.

3. Name some of the AWS Services that are not Region-Specific.

AWS services that are not region-specific are:

• IAM
• Route 53
• Web Application Firewall
• CloudFront

4. What is SnowBall?

A small application called SnowBall transfers terabytes of data inside and outside the AWS environment.

SnowBall data transfer is accomplished in the following ways:

• A job has been created.
• The SnowBall application has been established.
• The data is transferred to the SnowBall application.
• The data is then transferred to AWS S3.

5. What are the Advantages of AWS IAM?

AWS IAM enables administrators to grant granular access to multiple users and groups. Various user groups and users may require varying levels of access to the developed resources.

It also provides Federated Access, which grants applications and users access to resources without needing IAM Roles.

Conclusion

The AWS Well-Architected Framework provides architectural best practices across five pillars for designing and operating cloud-based systems that are reliable, secure, efficient, and cost-effective. The Framework includes questions that allow you to evaluate an existing or proposed architecture.