Amazon Web Services, or AWS, was mostly regarded as a mere part of Amazon.com INC. Although little known, the numbers it brought completely changed the public’s opinion. For the first time in its nine-year history, Amazon revealed the AWS revenue. In the first quarter of 2015, AWS brought the company a revenue of $1.5 billion, a figure that only grew to $1.8 billion in the following quarter and furthered into $2 billion by the third quarter. In 2018, AWS was reported to have generated over $7.3 billion, which made up more than half of Amazon’s total revenue. Plenty still remains in the dark about AWS, however.
Here, we discuss and understand just what AWS is, what it has done, and the role it could play for the success of your business. Let’s begin!
What is Amazon Web Services, exactly?
AWS is actually a combination of many different cloud computing services and products. It is Amazon’s highly profitable division, which provides servers, networking, storage, email, mobile development, remote computing, and even security.
It can be broken down into two pain products; the EC2 and S3. The EC2 is Amazon’s virtual machine, while the S3 is its storage system. AWS as a whole has been revealed to be so large and present in the world of computing that it’s now at least ten times the size of its competitors and other popular hosts websites, such as Instagram and Netflix.
Divided into 12 global regions, AWS has been made available into multiple zones in which servers are located. These regions have been divided in order to allow users to be able to set geographical limits. Furthermore, this division process also provides security, as it diversifies the physical locations in which large amounts of data is held.
What can it do for your business?
1 – Allows you to save on costs
Jeff Bezos has likened the Amason Web Services to the 1900s utility companies. Over a hundred years ago, factories that need electricity had to build their own powerplants. As soon as factories were able to purchase electricity from public utilities, however, the need for costly electric powerplants subsided. That is what AWS is offering—for companies to move away from computing technologies and onto the cloud landscape!
Through the use of AWS, companies only need to pay for what they consume. There are no upfront costs attached to building storage systems, nor are there any estimate usages. By integrating to AWS, your costs will be scaled according to your usage, meaning that you will save on money in the long run!
2 – It is scalable and adaptable
Due to its cost-efficiency tailored according to the customers’ usage, small businesses and startups will find endless benefits to using AWS for their computing needs. As a matter of fact, AWS is one of the best ways to build businesses from the bottom, as it provides customers with all the necessary tools for starting out with the cloud. For existing companies, on the other hand, AWS offers low-cost migration services, which allows existing structures to be moved over to Amazon seamlessly.
3 – Provides for extra security and is entirely reliable
AWS can perhaps be much more secure than self-hosting websites and storages. Currently, AWS is composed of dozens of data centres across the globe, continuously strictly monitored and maintained. As previously mentioned, the diversification of data centres guarantees users that a faulty region won’t cause permanent damage to data loss worldwide.
Amazon has also ensured that all data is localised away from identifiable locations, so the chances of intrusions happening are close to non-existent. Any potential attacks and outages are quickly identified and remedied, all monitored 24/7. Such a level of security cannot be said for small businesses, where computing is mostly handled by a one-man team. With your security guaranteed, it’s best to begin integrating AWS into your business operations.
Conclusion
With everything discussed above, the future of your company seems better with Amazon Web Services. It is cost-efficient, highly adaptable, and secure, making it the perfect computing host for your business.
That said, AWS is a huge undertaking, and if you’re not ready for such commitments, why not try us? We cater to small businesses, committed to ensuring quality, value, and above all, reliability—we understand the value of your data. If you’re looking to learn more about AWS, get in touch with us to see how we can help.
