Amazon Web Services (AWS), a cloud platform provided by Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN), has become a giant part of the e-commerce giant’s business portfolio. In the first quarter of 2020, AWS set a record revenue of $ 10 billion, representing 13.5% of Amazon’s total revenue. AWS has grown steadily in the 30 percent range over the past few quarters and has led the way in other cloud computing platforms such as rival Microsoft Azure. What is AWS and why is it profitable and successful at amazon?
What exactly is AWS?
AWS consists of many different cloud computing products and services. Amazon’s highly lucrative division provides servers, storage, networking, remote computing, email, mobile device development and security. AWS can be divided into three main products: EC2, Amazon Virtual Machine Service, Glacier, Low Cost Cloud Storage Service and S3, Amazon Storage System. AWS is so large and located in the computing world that it significantly outperforms its competitors. As of February 2020, an independent analyst has reported that AWS has more than a third of the market with 32.4%, followed by Azure at 17.6% and Google Cloud at 6%.
AWS has 76 zones where its servers are located. These service areas are subdivided to allow users to set geographical limits for services (if they choose to do so) as well as to ensure security by diversifying physical storage locations. The AWS typically covers 245 countries and regions.
- Cost savings
Jeff Bezos equated Amazon Web Services to utilities in the early twentieth century. One hundred years ago, a plant that needed electricity built its own power plant, but when plants could buy electricity from utilities, the need for expensive private power plants diminished. AWS is trying to prevent companies from entering physical computing technologies and the cloud.
Traditionally, companies looking for large amounts of storage will need to create and maintain storage space. Cloud storage can mean signing an expensive contract for a large storage space where a company can “grow.” The construction or purchase of very small warehouse space can be a disaster if the business starts and is expensive if not.
The same goes for computing power. Typically, fast-moving companies buy large amounts of energy to keep their business running during peak hours. At a time when there is no congestion, such as for tax accountants, computing power is not used, but it still costs the company money.
With AWS, companies pay for what they use. There is no upfront cost to set up a storage system and there is no need to assess use. AWS customers use what they need and their costs are automatically reduced accordingly.
- Scalable and scalable
As AWS costs are adjusted based on customer usage, start-ups and small businesses can see the obvious benefits of using Amazon to meet their computing needs. Indeed, AWS is great for building a business from the bottom up because it provides all the tools for businesses to start the cloud. For existing businesses, Amazon provides low-cost shipping services so that your existing infrastructure can be seamlessly transferred to AWS.
As a company grows, AWS provides resources to help it grow, and because its business model allows it to be used flexibly, customers will never have to spend time thinking about whether they need to test their computing experience. In fact, regardless of budget reasons, companies can realistically “assign and forget” all their computer needs.
- Security and reliability
It can be said that Amazon Web Services is much more secure than the company that hosts or maintains their site. Today, AWS has dozens of data centers around the world that are constantly monitored and maintained accurately. The diversification of data centers ensures that a disaster affecting one region does not lead to permanent data loss worldwide. Imagine if Netflix on the eve of a hurricane were to focus on all your employees’ files, content and backup data on the site. There will be chaos.
In fact, locating data on a site is easy to find, and it makes sense for hundreds of people to actually access it. AWS tried to keep its data centers as hidden as possible, locate them in local areas, and allow access only to the primary base. Data centers and all the data in them are protected from intrusion, and with Amazon’s experience in cloud services, outages and potential attacks can be quickly detected and easily handled around the clock. The same cannot be said for a small company whose computerization is provided by one IT specialist who works outside a large office.
- The Bottom line
Amazon Web Services is a cash cow on Amazon. Services shook the computing world in the same way that Amazon is changing America’s retail space. By setting cloud products at very low prices, Amazon can provide affordable and scalable services for everyone, from the latest start-ups to the Fortune 500.