Introduction to Cloud Computing - What is AWS

In the simplest terms, Cloud computing is when you use a computer/server which is provided by someone else.
This server has to be accessed over the internet by using a web-based tool for personal and business use.

Before move further we need to understand Virtualization.
Virtualization is the creation of a virtual version of something, such as an operating system, server, storage device, or network resources.

So, Cloud Computing = Virtualization + Internet / Intranet (a local or restricted communications network, especially a private network created using World Wide Web software.)

Advantages

No capital expenditure
Everything is changed on per second/minutes/hour basis and pay only if you use
Getting a new server is as easy as clicking some mouse buttons
Security
Flexible and error shield

Cloud Service and Deployment Models

Cloud Service Models

1.) IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service): AWS, Rackspace, MS Azure, etc.
2.) PaaS (Platform as a Service): AWS elastic Beanstalk, Heroku, etc.
3.) SasS (Software as a Service): Google Drive, Google Doc, MS office

From: Dincloud

(Image source: bmc.com)

Cloud Computing Deployment Models

Once you have selected your chosen cloud service(s) you have the option of three main cloud computing deployment models: public cloud, private cloud, and hybrid cloud.

(Image source: AVI Networks)

Cloud Computing Service Providers

A cloud provider is a company that delivers services and solutions which are based on cloud computing to businesses and/or individuals.
Amazon Web Services
- The biggest cloud service provider with 33 zones of availability spread across 17 worldwide regions!
- The largest companies in the world like Netflix, Reddit, NSA use AWS to host their application.
Mircosoft Azure
- 2nd biggest market shareholder in cloud computing history.
- Azure ranks number in the development and testing tools.
Google Cloud Platform
- They rank behind AWS and Azure.
- They mainly provide SaaS services (Google forms, Google docs).

What is AWS?

Amazon web services provide on-demand cloud computing services to businesses and individuals.

AWS Management Console

Now let’s know about AWS services.

Compute Services
1. EC2 or Elastic Compute Cloud — Virtual machine for which the user has OS-level control.

2. AWS Lambda — Run program functions in the cloud.

Storage Services

1. Amazon Glacier- Low-cost storage service for data archiving and backup.
2. Amazon Elastic Block Store (EBS)- Provides block-level storage for Amazon EC2. EBS volumes are network-attached and are free from the life of an instance.
3. Amazon S3 — S3 or simple storage service. It provides object storage.
4. Cloud Front — It is a CDN or content delivery network to distribute the inert and active web content. For example, .html, .php files to clients.

Security Services

1. IAM (Identity and Access Management) — IAM helps to manage users, assign policies, form groups to manage multiple users.
2. Certificate Manager — Offers free SSL certificates for your domains that are managed by Route53.

Database Services

1. Amazon RDS- Set up, operate, and scale a relational database in the cloud.
2. Amazon DynamoDB- Fully managed NoSQL database service.
3. Amazon ElastiCache- Deploy, operate and scale an in-memory cache in the cloud.
4. Amazon Redshift — Data warehousing solution to perform OLAP queries.

Management Services

1. CloudWatch — Monitor AWS environments like EC2, RDS instances, and CPU utilization. It also triggers alarms depends on various metrics.
2. CloudFormation — It turns infrastructure into the cloud. Use templates to get the whole production environment in minutes.
3. OpsWorks — Automated Chef/Puppet deployments on AWS environment.

Starting With AWS

• Open AWS website https://aws.amazon.com/
• Create a new account
• Go to AWS management console.