AWS Core Services Overview

In this chapter, we’ll explore the most commonly used AWS services, categorized by their purpose. This will give you a foundational understanding of the cloud building blocks you’ll use to create scalable, secure, and high-performance applications on AWS.

🧱 1. Compute Services

These services allow you to run applications, manage virtual machines, or execute code without provisioning servers.

⚙️ Amazon EC2 (Elastic Compute Cloud)

• Launch and manage virtual servers in the cloud
• Choose from a wide range of instance types (e.g., t2.micro, m5.large)
• Supports scaling, load balancing, and monitoring

🔑 Use Cases: Web hosting, application backends, game servers

⚡ AWS Lambda

• Serverless compute: run code in response to events (no server management)
• Automatically scales and charges only per execution time
• Supports multiple languages: Python, Node.js, Java, Go, etc.

🔑 Use Cases: Real-time file processing, backend APIs, cron jobs

🌱 Elastic Beanstalk

• Platform as a Service (PaaS)
• Deploy applications (Java, .NET, PHP, Python, Node.js) quickly without managing infrastructure

📦 2. Storage Services

AWS offers highly durable and available storage options for all use cases.

🗂️ Amazon S3 (Simple Storage Service)

• Object storage service with 99.999999999% durability
• Supports versioning, lifecycle rules, and static website hosting
• Storage classes: S3 Standard, S3 IA, S3 Glacier

🔑 Use Cases: Backups, media files, logs, static website hosting

💽 Amazon EBS (Elastic Block Store)

• Block-level storage for EC2 instances
• Persistent even after EC2 stops

🔑 Use Cases: Database storage, high-performance workloads

🧊 Amazon Glacier

• Archival storage solution for infrequent access
• Extremely low cost

🔑 Use Cases: Long-term backups, compliance records

🛢️ 3. Database Services

Whether SQL or NoSQL, AWS has powerful options.

🐘 Amazon RDS (Relational Database Service)

• Fully managed relational DB (MySQL, PostgreSQL, Oracle, SQL Server)
• Supports backups, scaling, multi-AZ for high availability

🔑 Use Cases: Web apps, CMS systems, ERP platforms

⚡ Amazon DynamoDB

• NoSQL key-value database with single-digit millisecond latency
• Fully serverless with on-demand scaling

🔑 Use Cases: E-commerce, gaming, IoT, mobile apps

🌊 Amazon Aurora

• High-performance version of MySQL and PostgreSQL
• 5x faster than standard MySQL

🌐 4. Networking & Content Delivery

Connect and protect your cloud environment efficiently.

🔧 Amazon VPC (Virtual Private Cloud)

• Launch resources in a logically isolated virtual network
• Configure subnets, route tables, NAT gateways, etc.

🔑 Use Cases: Secure deployments, multi-tier architectures

🌍 Amazon Route 53

• Scalable and highly available Domain Name System (DNS)
• Supports domain registration, traffic routing, and health checks

🛰️ Amazon CloudFront

• Global Content Delivery Network (CDN)
• Reduces latency by caching content at edge locations

🧰 5. Developer Tools

Automate, build, test, and deploy applications with CI/CD services.

🔨 AWS CodeCommit

• Fully managed Git-based source control

🚀 AWS CodeDeploy

• Automates deployment to EC2, Lambda, or on-prem servers

🧪 AWS CodePipeline

• Automate CI/CD workflows

🔐 6. Security, Identity, and Compliance

Security is a shared responsibility—AWS provides powerful tools for protection.

👥 AWS IAM (Identity & Access Management)

• Manage user permissions and roles
• Enforce least privilege access with policies

🔑 AWS KMS (Key Management Service)

• Create and control encryption keys

🛡️ AWS Shield & WAF

• Protect against DDoS and web application attacks

📊 7. Analytics & Machine Learning

📈 Amazon Athena

• Run SQL queries on S3 data without setting up a database

💡 Amazon SageMaker

• Build, train, and deploy machine learning models at scale

🔍 Amazon QuickSight

• BI tool to create dashboards and visualizations

Bonus: Other Essential Services

📌 Summary Table of AWS Core Services