Getting Started with AWS Cloud: An Introduction
Tags: aws, cloud, beginners, tutorial
Published: 2023-04-06 13:36:00

In recent years, cloud computing has become increasingly popular as it provides flexibility, scalability and cost savings for businesses and individuals alike. With numerous cloud computing platforms available, selecting the appropriate one can be a daunting undertaking. AWS (Amazon Web Services) is one of the most widely used cloud platforms, offering a vast range of services to meet diverse business needs. In this blog, we will explore the basics of AWS Cloud and its services.

## What is Cloud Computing?
Cloud computing is the delivery of computing resources, including servers, storage, databases, software, analytics, and more, over the internet, allowing organizations to access these services from anywhere with an internet connection. 

With cloud computing, users can scale their resources up or down as per their business needs, making it a cost-effective and flexible solution for modern businesses. 

Cloud computing also offers numerous benefits such as increased agility, improved collaboration, enhanced security and greater accessibility.

### Types Of Cloud Computing:
With growing popularity of cloud computing, several models and deployments strategies have emerged to help meet specific needs of different users. Each type of cloud service, and deployment method, provides you with the different levels of control, flexibility and management.

#### Cloud Computing Models:
There are three main cloud computing models, namely -

- **Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)**: In this model, cloud providers offer virtualized computing resources including servers, storage and networking. Customers can access these resources and configure them according to their needs. IaaS is the most flexible and customizable cloud computing model, allowing users to manage their own operating systems, applications and data. With this type of model you have the highest level of flexibility and management control of your IT resources.

- **Platform as a Service (PaaS)**: This model provides a complete platform for developers to build, run, and manage applications without worrying about the underlying infrastructure. PaaS providers offer a wide range of development tools and frameworks such as programming languages, databases and application servers, which can be used to create applications quickly. PaaS is ideal for companies that want to focus on developing and deploying applications without having to worry about managing the underlying infrastructure.

- **Software as a Service (SaaS)**: This model provides software applications that are hosted and delivered over the internet. Customers can access these applications through a web browser or a mobile app, and the provider takes care of the underlying infrastructure and maintenance. The provider of the software application manages the infrastructure, maintenance, and security of the software, allowing users to focus on their business needs. SaaS is a cost-effective option for businesses, as it eliminates the need for upfront hardware and software investments and reduces the cost of maintenance and upgrades.

#### Cloud Computing Deployment Models:
There are mainly three types of cloud deployment models-
- **On-premises**: also known as _Private Cloud_ refers to a cloud computing environment that is dedicated to a single organization. Private clouds are designed to provide a high level of security and control over data and applications.
- **Public Cloud**: A public cloud deployment model allows users to access resources, applications, and services from a third-party providers like AWS, over the internet. Public clouds are often more cost-effective and scalable than traditional on-premises IT environments. Applications have either been developed in the cloud or have been migrated from an existing infrastructure.
- **Hybrid Cloud**: Hybrid cloud refers to a cloud computing environment that combines both public and private cloud services.
You can connect infrastructure and applications between cloud-based resources with existing on-premises resources. This type of cloud computing is ideal for organizations that want the flexibility of public cloud services, but also need the security and control of private cloud services.

Apart from this we also have, multi-cloud deployment model which involves using multiple public clouds or a combination of public and private clouds. This allows organizations to take advantage of the best features of each cloud provider, such as scalability or cost-effectiveness. However, managing multiple cloud environments can be challenging.



## What is AWS Cloud?
AWS is a cloud platform offered by Amazon, which provide comprehensive range of cloud services, including computing, storage, database, analytics, machine learning, and more.

AWS cloud offers businesses and individuals the ability to create and deploy applications, services and infrastructure on pay-as-you-go basis, without the need for large upfront capital expenditures.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) was launched by Amazon in 2006 as a cloud computing platform. Initially, it started as a basic infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) platform, providing storage and computing resources to developers and companies. However, over the years, AWS has evolved and expanded its services to include a wide range of cloud-based solutions. 

Today, AWS is the largest cloud computing platform in the world, with a wide range of customers, from startups to large enterprises, across various industries. It has a global network of data centers and offers more than 200 services to its customers.

AWS has been named as a leader in the 2022 Gartner Cloud Infrastructure & Platform Services (CIPS) Magic Quadrant for the 12th consecutive year. You can read the full article on this achievement and the reasons behind it by following this link [here](https://aws.amazon.com/blogs/aws/aws-named-as-a-leader-in-the-2022-gartner-cloud-infrastructure-platform-services-cips-magic-quadrant-for-the-12th-consecutive-year/).

According to Synergy Research Group's Q1 2022 report, AWS holds 32% of the worldwide cloud infrastructure market share, which is more than the combined market share of its three closest competitors (Microsoft, Google, and Alibaba), find the link [here.](https://www.srgresearch.com/articles/huge-cloud-market-is-still-growing-at-34-per-year-amazon-microsoft-and-google-now-account-for-65-of-all-cloud-revenues)

### AWS Cloud Services
AWS offers a vast range services, including:

- _Compute services_ such as _Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2)_, which provides scalable compute capacity in the cloud.
- _Storage services_ such as _Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3)_, which provides highly scalable and durable object storage.
- _Database services_ such as _Amazon Relational Database Service (RDS)_, which provide managed database services.
- _Analytics services_ such as _Amazon Athena_, which enables querying data in Amazon S3 using standard SQL.
- _Machine Learning services_ such as _Amazon SageMaker_, which enables building, training, deploying machine learning models at scale.
- And much more.

AWS also offers tools to manage and monitor these services, _AWS Management Console_, _AWS CloudFormation_, and _AWS CloudTrail_.

### Why use AWS Cloud?
AWS Cloud provides several benefits, including:
- **Cost savings**: Businesses can save costs by paying only for what they use.
- **Scalability**: AWS Cloud services can scale up or down based on business needs, allowing businesses to easily adjust to changes in demand.
- **Flexibility**: AWS Cloud services can be deployed in a variety of configurations, including on-premises, hybrid, or fully in the cloud.
- **Security**: AWS Cloud provides a secure and compliant infrastructure, with a wide range of security and compliance certifications.



## Purpose of the Blog Series:
The purpose of this blog series is to help you get started with AWS Cloud, even if you have no prior experience with cloud computing. We'll provide step-by-step instructions, screenshots and best practices to help you make the most of AWS Cloud. By the end of this series, readers will have a solid understanding of AWS and the tools they needed to start building powerful cloud-based applications.

### Roadmap:
In this series, we'll cover the following topics:

- **Compute**: Learn how to provision and manage virtual servers, containers and serverless functions.
- **Storage**: Explore the different options for storing and managing data, including object storage, block storage, file storage.
- **Databases**: Discover the different database services offered by AWS, including relational, non-relational and in-memory databases.
- **Networking**: Learn how to configure and manage virtual networks, load balancers and content delivery.
- **Security**: Understand the different security options provided by AWS, including Identity and Access Management (IAM), encryption, and monitoring.

## Conclusion
AWS Cloud provides a comprehensive range of cloud services that enable businesses and individuals to build, deploy, and manage applications and infrastructure with ease.

In this blog, we have explored the basics of AWS Cloud and its services. In the next blog, we will dive deeper into AWS Compute Services, specifically Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2).

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