AWS (Amazon Web Services)

Amazon Web Services (AWS) is the world's most comprehensive and broadly adopted cloud platform, launched in 2006. It provides global infrastructure enabling businesses of all sizes to deploy applications without managing physical servers, using a pay-as-you-go pricing model.

Fundamentals

• Global infrastructure spanning 33 geographic regions and 105 availability zones
• Catalog of 200+ services covering compute (EC2), storage (S3), databases (RDS, DynamoDB), AI/ML, IoT and analytics
• Pay-as-you-go model eliminating upfront hardware infrastructure investments
• Mature ecosystem with security certifications (ISO, SOC, HIPAA) and regulatory compliance

Benefits

• Instant elasticity: automatic resource adjustment based on load (auto-scaling)
• 30-50% operational cost reduction compared to traditional on-premise infrastructure
• Global deployment in minutes through regions interconnected by private network
• Enhanced reliability with 99.99% SLA and automatic multi-zone replication
• Accelerated innovation: immediate access to latest technologies (serverless, containers, quantum)

Practical Example

Typical architecture of a modern web application on AWS combining multiple services:

// Infrastructure as Code with AWS CDK (TypeScript)
import * as cdk from 'aws-cdk-lib';
import * as ec2 from 'aws-cdk-lib/aws-ec2';
import * as ecs from 'aws-cdk-lib/aws-ecs';
import * as rds from 'aws-cdk-lib/aws-rds';
import * as s3 from 'aws-cdk-lib/aws-s3';

export class MyAppStack extends cdk.Stack {
  constructor(scope: cdk.App, id: string) {
    super(scope, id);

    // VPC with public/private subnets
    const vpc = new ec2.Vpc(this, 'AppVPC', {
      maxAzs: 3,
      natGateways: 1
    });

    // ECS Fargate cluster (serverless containers)
    const cluster = new ecs.Cluster(this, 'AppCluster', {
      vpc,
      containerInsights: true
    });

    // Managed PostgreSQL database
    const database = new rds.DatabaseInstance(this, 'AppDB', {
      engine: rds.DatabaseInstanceEngine.postgres({
        version: rds.PostgresEngineVersion.VER_15
      }),
      vpc,
      multiAz: true,
      allocatedStorage: 100
    });

    // S3 storage for static assets
    const assetsBucket = new s3.Bucket(this, 'AssetsBucket', {
      versioned: true,
      encryption: s3.BucketEncryption.S3_MANAGED,
      lifecycleRules: [{
        transitions: [{
          storageClass: s3.StorageClass.GLACIER,
          transitionAfter: cdk.Duration.days(90)
        }]
      }]
    });
  }
}

Implementation

1. Create an AWS account and configure multi-factor authentication (MFA) for security
2. Define target architecture by selecting appropriate services (EC2 vs Lambda, RDS vs DynamoDB)
3. Set up Infrastructure as Code with Terraform or AWS CloudFormation for reproducibility
4. Configure networking (VPC, subnets, security groups) following least privilege principle
5. Progressive deployment with separated environments (dev, staging, production)
6. Implement monitoring with CloudWatch and alerts on critical metrics
7. Optimize costs via AWS Cost Explorer and Reserved Instances for predictable workloads

Related Tools

• AWS CLI: command-line interface to automate AWS operations
• AWS CDK: define cloud infrastructure with programming languages (TypeScript, Python)
• Terraform: multi-cloud Infrastructure as Code tool including AWS
• AWS Console: web interface to visually manage all services
• CloudFormation: native AWS orchestration to provision resources via JSON/YAML templates
• AWS Organizations: centralized management of multiple AWS accounts with consolidated security policies

AWS radically transforms how businesses build and operate their IT systems. By eliminating physical infrastructure management and offering highly available managed services, AWS enables technical teams to focus on creating business value rather than server maintenance. With adoption by 90% of Fortune 100 companies and an ecosystem of partners, certifications and training, AWS establishes itself as the technological foundation of modern digital transformation.