Features
- 200+ fully featured cloud services
- Global infrastructure across 30+ regions
- Industry-leading IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS offerings
- Deepest enterprise compliance and security certifications
Pros
- Most mature and comprehensive cloud platform
- Massive scale with proven reliability
- Widest range of services for any use case
Cons
- Complex pricing model that is hard to predict
- Steep learning curve with overwhelming service catalog
- Console UX is notoriously difficult
Overview
Amazon Web Services (AWS) is the world’s most comprehensive and widely adopted cloud platform. Launched in 2006, AWS offers over 200 fully featured services from data centers globally, covering compute, storage, databases, networking, AI/ML, analytics, IoT, and more.
AWS provides the building blocks to deploy virtually any type of application, from simple static websites to complex distributed systems. Its services range from low-level infrastructure (EC2 virtual machines, S3 storage) to high-level managed services (Lambda serverless, Aurora databases, SageMaker ML).
As the market leader in cloud computing, AWS has the largest community, most third-party integrations, and widest range of enterprise compliance certifications.
When to Use
Choose AWS when you need the broadest range of cloud services, enterprise-grade compliance, or specific AWS-only services. For simpler web deployments, consider Vercel, Cloudflare, or Railway which offer better developer experience.
Getting Started
# Install AWS CLI
curl "https://awscli.amazonaws.com/awscli-exe-linux-x86_64.zip" -o "awscliv2.zip"
unzip awscliv2.zip && sudo ./aws/install
aws configure