AWS Tutorial - A Detailed Guide to Cloud Computing for Beginner

The professionals who are interested in learning AWS or cloud computing may find this tutorial guide helpful as we have covered all the information relevant to the AWS Engineer, DevOps Engineer, a cloud architect, and the AWS Solution Architect, etc. Here, in this tutorial, firstly we will introduce AWS and then we will cover the service range offered by the AWS.

Earlier in 2006-07, Companies were using their own servers so that they can create the computing systems or storage services. Now, the internet speed is getting improved and so even small or big, any size of the companies is using the cloud to improve their performance.  In this way, they could focus more on their competencies and rest of the things will be managed by the cloud environment itself.

Today, a majority of companies are focusing on their services and for that AWS plays an important role. This is the reason why adoption of cloud computing is so common among users these days. Undoubtedly, AWS is one of the most popular cloud services in the service industry available so far. This is the reason why technical aspirants are interested in learning AWS so desperately.

What is Cloud Computing? Service Models of Cloud Computing

Before we discuss on AWS and its services, let us first discuss the cloud computing benefits. Cloud computing is defined as the Internet-based services that are used to store, manage, and process data on the internet server rather than a local server or personal system. Below-listed three service categories are found in cloud computing, they are:

A). SaaS (Software as a Service)

SaaS is a short form of software as a service that allows the companies to use or install the software without purchasing them. In this way, the expenditure is reduced drastically as they do not need to install them on their system and can use it directly from cloud servers.

B). PaaS (Platform as a Service)

Developers can build and collaborate applications and projects without maintaining or purchasing the infrastructure

C). IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service)

Companies can rent storage services or servers or other components of infrastructure through the cloud.

Why should you use Cloud Services?

Here is a list of benefits offered by cloud computing that will make you sure why the cloud is so important for modern business users.

A). Reliability

Cloud computing platform offers a manageable, reliable and consistent service platform for in-house IT infrastructure. The services of the cloud are offered round the clock. In case if any server fails, then the hosted applications are immediately transited to the next available server.

B). Huge Storage

Almost unlimited storage is offered by cloud computing, so you need not be worried about storage space and if it increases then will be managed easily.

C). Cost-Efficient

It is quite a time consuming and costly affair to install and manage own servers, as you may have to install many software programs and configure them on your own server. However, in the case of cloud computing, you need not maintain, update, and install a separate server you can use the existing cloud servers and access its services as well.

D). Easy Information Access

The information can be easily accessed from the clouds and for that, you only have to register your service on the cloud. Just through your system and an internet connection, you can access the information or data from anywhere at any time.

E). Backup and Recovery

It is quite easier to backup and restore the information from the cloud as compared to any physical device or hardware. Cloud service providers like AWS can also recover the lost information easily and conveniently.

Moving ahead, let us discuss AWS basics, its architecture, and a range of services offered by the AWS platform.

Read: How AWS Shared Responsibility Model Strengthens Cloud Security?

What is AWS? The Basic AWS EC2 Architecture

What is AWS?

If you want to know the answer of this question then for you the answer is it is the short form of Amazon Web Services that is a subsidiary of Amazon.com that offers cloud computing services even at very affordable rates. By using these services, the companies can make their customer base, strong either if it is a small-scale company or a large-scale organization.

AWS Basic Architecture is shown below:

Here, we have represented the basic structure of AWS EC2. Users can use virtual machines through EC2 even of different configurations and requirement. Various types of information can be stored and retrieved through API calls. No computing element is kept in this. 

AWS Web Hosting Key Considerations

Here are enlisted certain key-considerations for AWS web hosting –

A). No Security Concerns

AWS model is quite secured and here every host is locked down.  For each type of the host, Amazon has designed EC2. Even other customized security models can also be created as per user requirement.

B). No Hardware Required

In AWS, physical devices are replaced by software like load-balancer, router, and firewalls. All physical devices can be replaced by software.

C). Many Data Centers

EC2 instances are available at most of the AWS regions and can be used to provide a model that can help in application deployment. It can ease application availability and reliability.

A plethora of Cloud Services offered by the AWS

AWS offers a number of cloud services in separate domains and services, we have enlisted them below:

• Networking: All networking related services are included in this like security, faster access and other
• Database: This domain is used to provide reliable relational and non-relational database
• Management Tools: The services that are used to maintain and monitor AWS instances are included in this.
• Storage and Content Delivery: Storage is used to store cloud data, but content delivery is about data caching at nearby place or location.
• Application Services: Simple services like emailing, queuing and notifications are included in these services
• Compute: It is used to process the cloud data that needs powerful processors ahead to serve multiple instances together.

Apart from the above-listed domains, Amazon has again categorized the services as per client’s need that is:

Compute Services offered by the AWS

A). AWS Elastic Beanstalk

Applications can be quickly managed and deployed by using Beanstalk. Here due to this service user need not be worried about the underlying and used infrastructure.

B). AWS Lambda

It is used to execute all of the back-end code, the user again need not to care about the underlying architecture. The user only has to upload the code if he wants to execute it, the code will be executed automatically. AWS also maintain a Lambda Blog to provide more information

C). AWS EC2

Resizable compute facility is provided and handled by AWS EC2. Web-scale computing has become easier due to this service.

D). AWS Autoscaling

This feature was evolved to scale up and down architecture as and when required or in other words automatically.  You can find a dedicated blog to know more about this.

Storage and Content Delivery Services offered by the AWS

Read: How To Start a Career in Cloud Computing?

A). Amazon Cloud Front

Cloud Front is a network that is used for content delivery; it basically caches data at a nearby location that can reduce latency.

B). S3 AWS

Simple storage service or S3 is used for data storage and it is used in the form of objects. Data files are stored in the AWS cloud. You can refer the S3 blog to know more about this.

C). AWS Storage Gateway

Seamless data integration is provided and maintained by storage gateway. Even data security features between AWS cloud software and your on-premise software application.

D). AWS Import/Export Snowbell

Physical data transfer between AWS data center and the user’s location is offered by this service. Here AWS use Snowball device to manage the transfer.

Database Services offered by the AWS

A). Amazon RDS

It is a managed database service that uses 6 popular databases to provide the database service through cloud these are Oracle, MySQL, MariaDB, Amazon Aurora, Postgre SQL, and Microsoft SQL Server.

B). Amazon Redshift

It is a well-organized and managed petabyte-scale data warehouse service in the cloud.

C). Amazon Aurora

Speed and reliability features are provided by the high-end commercial databases and it is an open-source and cost-effective database.

D). Amazon ElasticCache

It is an easily manageable, scalable and distributed cache-in environment in the cloud.

E). Amazon DynamoDB

It is a fully managed and No-SQL database service that is known for scalability and low latency

Networking Services offered by the AWS

A). AWS Direct Connect

A private connection is being set-up and managed through this service, so it helps in providing better network throughput and performance.

B). VPC AWS

AWS resources are virtually launched through Amazon VPC service.

C). VPC Route S3

This is a scalable DNS offered by the AWS and used in reference to the TCP port 53 where DNS requests are addressed.

Read: Complete Guide to Cloud & Cloud Computing

Application Services offered by the AWS

A). Amazon SES

This is a highly cost-effective application service offered by the AWS and it is based on the reliable and scalable structure of the AWS.

B). Amazon SNS

This application service is used to manage message deliveries to the subscribed endpoint or clients.

C). Amazon SQS

This is scalable and fast queuing service used to transmit the voluminous data at different throughput levels.

Similarly, many other services contribute to providing cloud services and they are provided to organize and manage all cloud-based services.

AWS Pricing

With AWS, you can always enjoy the volume-based discount when your requirements grow. Here are the tier-based schemes shown in the screenshot and you can subscribe to the package that suits your needs the most.

AWS Certifications and Job Trends

So, once you have gone through all important AWS concepts and services offered then what should be the next? It should the AWS certifications that are taken as proof of skills and knowledge. A certified AWS developer, AWS engineer, or AWS Solution Architect generally enjoys higher salary packages as compared to the normal users. You just have to make sure that you have chosen the right certification as per your skills.

The most common certification is Associate Solution Architect. So, who is a Solution Architect?

A solution architect is the part of the development team who is responsible for translating the functional requirements into a working architecture. He will define the architecture for the existing system and suggests related improvements too. Here is shown the job trends why should you become an AWS Solution Architect. Final Words:

It can be said that AWS is a popular cloud service provider and there are a number of services that are being offered by the Amazon. Users just have to access the dashboard of Amazon if he wants to use and access any of Amazon web services.

Organizations prefer AWS services due to their benefits that we have already listed in this blog post. Amazon web services are quite cost-effective, reliable, and efficient. A list of reliable services makes it the most preferred cloud service provider available so far.

Amazon services can also be customized as per requirements. All of them are highly secured and the security standards are maintained strictly throughout the web or internet. In this way, AWS is a wonderful solution for the tasks associated with the cloud.