Key AWS Services in 20 seconds.
Read to understand AWS Services in 20 seconds.
One-line overview of Key AWS services
This structure is followed to define key services:-
↳ What is it?
↳ How to use/configure?
↳ How much?
AWS Auto Scaling
Scope: Account-level
What: Automatically adjusts AWS resources to match demand and maintain performance.
How: Configure scaling policies for supported services like EC2, ECS, DynamoDB, and Aurora.
How Much: Free to use; you pay only for the resources provisioned.
Amazon S3
Scope: Regional
What: Object storage service for storing and retrieving data with high scalability and durability.
How: Create a bucket, upload objects, and set permissions or lifecycle policies via the console, CLI, or SDK.
How Much: Pay for storage used, requests made, and data transferred (e.g., $0.023 per GB for the first 50 TB in the S3 Standard tier).
Amazon RDS
Scope: Regional
What: Managed relational database service supporting MySQL, PostgreSQL, MariaDB, Oracle, and SQL Server.
How: Launch a database instance, configure storage and compute capacity, and automate backups and updates.
How Much: Pricing depends on database type, instance class, and storage (e.g., db.t4g.micro starts in the free tier).
Amazon CloudFront
Scope: Global
What: Content Delivery Network (CDN) that delivers content with low latency and high transfer speeds.
How: Distribute content by creating a CloudFront distribution and linking it to S3 buckets or other origins.
How Much: Pricing is based on data transfer and HTTP/HTTPS requests. Includes a free tier for up to 1 TB/month of data transfer.
AWS IAM
Scope: Global
What: Identity and Access Management service to securely control access to AWS resources.
How: Create users, groups, roles, and policies to grant permissions based on the principle of least privilege.
How Much: Free to use; no additional costs for IAM.
Amazon VPC
Scope: Regional
What: Virtual Private Cloud allows you to define an isolated network for your AWS resources.
How: Configure subnets, route tables, internet gateways, and security groups for networking.
How Much: Free to use, but charges apply for NAT gateways, VPNs, and traffic between regions.
Amazon EC2
Scope: Regional
What: Scalable compute capacity for running virtual servers in the cloud.
How: Launch instances with desired AMIs, choose instance types, configure security groups, and manage scaling.
How Much: Pay for compute hours or seconds (depending on billing model); options include on-demand, reserved, and spot instances.
Amazon DynamoDB
Scope: Regional
What: Fully managed NoSQL database service designed for key-value and document-based workloads.
How: Create tables, define read/write capacity, and integrate with your application via API or SDK.
How Much: Pay for on-demand or provisioned capacity modes, data storage, and optional features like backups and streams.
AWS Lambda
Scope: Regional
What: Serverless compute service to run code in response to events without provisioning servers.
How: Write code, deploy using the console or CLI, and configure triggers (e.g., S3, DynamoDB, API Gateway).
How Much: Free tier includes 1 million requests and 400,000 GB-seconds of compute time; additional usage billed per request and duration.
Amazon SNS
Scope: Regional
What: Managed service for sending notifications using topics, SMS, email, or HTTP endpoints.
How: Create a topic, subscribe endpoints, and publish messages through the console, CLI, or API.
How Much: Charges depend on the type of endpoint (e.g., $0.50 per million publish requests).
Amazon SQS
Scope: Regional
What: Fully managed message queuing service for decoupling and scaling microservices and serverless apps.
How: Create queues (standard or FIFO), send and receive messages via SDKs, and configure access controls.
How Much: Pricing is based on the number of requests and data transfer (free tier includes 1 million requests/month).
AWS CloudTrail
Scope: Account-level
What: Tracks and logs API calls and account activity for governance, compliance, and operational auditing.
How: Enable trails, set up delivery to S3, and analyze logs using CloudWatch or other tools.
How Much: Free for the last 90 days of activity; additional charges for multi-region trails and long-term storage.
Amazon CloudWatch
Scope: Regional
What: Monitoring service for AWS resources and custom metrics with alarms and automated actions.
How: Collect logs, set up alarms, and create dashboards to visualize metrics via the console or CLI.
How Much: Pricing depends on custom metrics, dashboards, alarms, and log storage/ingestion (free tier available).
AWS Elastic Beanstalk
Scope: Regional
What: Simplifies deploying and managing applications in the cloud using familiar platforms.
How: Upload your application code, select a platform (e.g., Node.js, Java), and let Beanstalk handle provisioning and scaling.
How Much: No additional charges; you pay only for underlying resources (e.g., EC2, RDS).
AWS Systems Manager
Scope: Account-level
What: Unified interface to manage AWS resources and automate operational tasks.
How: Use features like Run Command, Patch Manager, and Parameter Store to streamline management.
How Much: Free for many core features; charges apply for advanced configurations and automation steps.
Amazon Route 53
Scope: Global
What: Scalable DNS and domain registration service for managing traffic routing.
How: Register domains, configure routing policies (e.g., weighted, failover), and connect to hosted zones.
How Much: Pricing includes hosted zone management ($0.50 per zone/month) and query requests.
AWS CodePipeline
Scope: Regional
What: Continuous integration and delivery (CI/CD) service to automate code changes' deployment.
How: Create pipelines with stages, integrate with source control (e.g., GitHub), and set deployment targets.
How Much: $1 per active pipeline/month, excluding charges for integrated AWS services.
AWS Glue
Scope: Regional
What: Serverless data integration service for preparing, transforming, and moving data.
How: Create jobs, define ETL scripts, and use the Data Catalog to manage metadata.
How Much: Charges based on data processing units (DPUs) used per second; includes free tier options.
AWS Fargate
Scope: Regional
What: Serverless compute engine for containers, supporting Amazon ECS and EKS.
How: Define tasks and services in ECS/EKS, then run containers without provisioning servers.
How Much: Pay per vCPU and memory used by the task or pod.
Amazon EKS
Scope: Regional
What: Managed Kubernetes service for running containerized applications.
How: Create a cluster, configure nodes or use Fargate, and deploy workloads using Kubernetes APIs.
How Much: $0.10 per hour per cluster, plus charges for resources used by workloads.
Amazon ElastiCache
Scope: Regional
What: Fully managed in-memory data store for caching and real-time analytics (Redis or Memcached).
How: Create clusters, configure replication, and connect your application via APIs.
How Much: Charges based on instance types, clusters, and data transfer.
AWS AppSync
Scope: Regional
What: Managed GraphQL service for building APIs with real-time and offline capabilities.
How: Define a schema, connect data sources, and deploy resolvers using the console or CLI.
How Much: Pay per query execution, connection hours for subscriptions, and data transfer.
Amazon RDS
Scope: Regional
What: Managed relational database service supporting multiple database engines like MySQL, PostgreSQL, and Oracle.
How: Choose a database engine, configure instance settings, and connect to applications.
How Much: Pricing depends on instance size, storage, and optional features like multi-AZ deployments.
AWS Key Management Service (KMS)
Scope: Regional
What: Managed service for creating and controlling cryptographic keys.
How: Create keys, define usage policies, and integrate with other AWS services for encryption.
How Much: $1 per key/month for customer-managed keys; additional costs for API requests.
Amazon QuickSight
Scope: Regional
What: Business intelligence service for creating interactive dashboards and visualizing data.
How: Connect data sources, build analyses, and publish dashboards for team use.
How Much: Charges depend on user type (reader, author) and session or SPICE usage.
AWS Secrets Manager
Scope: Regional
What: Securely manage and rotate secrets like API keys and database credentials.
How: Store secrets, configure rotation policies, and retrieve them programmatically.
How Much: $0.40 per secret/month and $0.05 per 10,000 API calls.
AWS Config
Scope: Account-level
What: Tracks configuration changes and evaluates compliance of AWS resources.
How: Enable rules, track resources, and analyze compliance via console or CLI.
How Much: Pay per rule evaluation and recorded configuration item.
Amazon Redshift
Scope: Regional
What: Managed data warehouse for analyzing large datasets using SQL.
How: Create a cluster, load data, and run queries through BI tools or Redshift console.
How Much: Charges based on node type, storage, and usage; free trial available.
Amazon CloudFront
Scope: Global
What: Content delivery network (CDN) for fast delivery of web content.
How: Set up distributions, add origins (e.g., S3, EC2), and configure cache behaviors.
How Much: Pay for data transfer, requests, and additional features like real-time logging.
AWS Step Functions
Scope: Regional
What: Serverless orchestration service for building workflows across AWS services.
How: Define workflows using JSON, execute them, and monitor results via the console.
How Much: Pay per state transition; free tier includes 4,000 transitions/month.
Amazon SageMaker
Scope: Regional
What: Managed service for building, training, and deploying machine learning models.
How: Use built-in algorithms, notebooks, or custom models, and deploy endpoints for inference.
How Much: Charges vary for notebook instances, training jobs, and model hosting.
Amazon Inspector
Scope: Regional
What: Automated security assessment service for identifying vulnerabilities in workloads.
How: Set up assessments, define targets, and review findings in the console.
How Much: Charges depend on resource coverage and assessment runs.
AWS Elastic Beanstalk
Scope: Regional
What: Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) for deploying and managing applications without managing infrastructure.
How: Upload code, choose a platform (e.g., Node.js, Java, .NET), and Elastic Beanstalk automatically handles scaling and monitoring.
How Much: No additional cost for Elastic Beanstalk; charges apply for AWS resources used (e.g., EC2, S3).
Amazon Aurora
Scope: Regional
What: Managed relational database with MySQL and PostgreSQL compatibility, offering high performance and availability.
How: Launch Aurora instances and configure clusters for scaling and replication.
How Much: Charges based on instance type, storage, I/O requests, and backup storage.
Amazon Route 53
Scope: Global
What: Managed DNS and domain registration service for routing traffic to resources.
How: Create hosted zones, define record sets, and manage routing policies.
How Much: Pay per hosted zone and DNS queries; additional costs for domain registration.
AWS WAF (Web Application Firewall)
Scope: Regional
What: Protects web applications from common web exploits and bots.
How: Set up web ACLs, define rules for traffic filtering, and associate with CloudFront or Application Load Balancer.
How Much: Charges per web ACL, rules, and the amount of web requests processed.
AWS Lambda
Scope: Regional
What: Serverless compute service to run code without provisioning or managing servers.
How: Upload code, set triggers (e.g., S3 events, API Gateway), and Lambda automatically scales to handle requests.
How Much: Pay for the number of requests and the duration of execution (memory allocated).
Amazon S3 (Simple Storage Service)
Scope: Global
What: Scalable object storage service for storing and retrieving any amount of data.
How: Upload, retrieve, and manage data using the console, CLI, or API.
How Much: Pay based on storage usage, data transfer, and number of requests.
AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM)
Scope: Account-level
What: Manage user access and permissions to AWS services and resources.
How: Create IAM users, groups, roles, and policies for access control.
How Much: No additional charge for IAM; pay for other services that IAM controls access to.
Amazon SNS (Simple Notification Service)
Scope: Global
What: Managed service for sending messages, notifications, and alerts to distributed systems.
How: Set up topics, subscribe endpoints (e.g., email, SMS), and publish messages to notify subscribers.
How Much: Charges based on the number of messages published, delivery attempts, and data transfer.
AWS Systems Manager
Scope: Regional
What: Unified interface for managing and automating infrastructure at scale.
How: Use runbooks, patch management, and resource configuration to maintain systems.
How Much: Pay for specific features like Parameter Store, Session Manager, and OpsCenter.
Amazon SQS (Simple Queue Service)
Scope: Global
What: Managed message queuing service for decoupling and scaling microservices, distributed systems, and serverless applications.
How: Create queues, send and receive messages using the SQS API or SDK.
How Much: Charges based on the number of requests and the data transfer.
Amazon CloudWatch
Scope: Regional
What: Monitoring and observability service for AWS resources and applications.
How: Set up metrics, logs, alarms, and dashboards to monitor resources and applications.
How Much: Charges for metrics, logs, custom dashboards, and alarms.
AWS Cost Explorer
Scope: Account-level
What: Visualize and analyze your AWS spending and usage over time.
How: Use the Cost Explorer dashboard to filter, group, and explore cost data for insights.
How Much: No additional cost for basic usage; charges for detailed billing and forecasts.
AWS Batch
Scope: Regional
What: Managed batch processing service for running large-scale parallel and high-performance computing (HPC) workloads.
How: Define job definitions, create compute environments, and submit jobs for processing.
How Much: Charges based on EC2 instance usage for job execution.
AWS Direct Connect
Scope: Regional
What: Establish dedicated network connections from your premises to AWS.
How: Set up connections from on-premises to AWS Direct Connect locations, bypassing the internet for lower latency.
How Much: Pricing based on connection speed, data transfer, and location.
AWS CloudFormation
Scope: Regional
What: Service for automating the setup and management of AWS resources using code templates.
How: Create CloudFormation stacks to define and deploy resources like EC2 instances, S3 buckets, and more through templates.
How Much: No additional charge for CloudFormation itself; charges apply for AWS resources created through CloudFormation.
AWS CloudTrail
Scope: Account-level
What: Service for logging and monitoring AWS API calls for compliance and auditing purposes.
How: Enable CloudTrail in your AWS account to log API activity for specific regions or services.
How Much: Charges based on the number of events recorded and stored.
AWS Key Management Service (KMS)
Scope: Regional
What: Managed service for creating and controlling encryption keys used to encrypt your data.
How: Create customer-managed keys (CMKs) and use them for encrypting data across AWS services.
How Much: Charges based on the number of keys stored and requests made to use them.
Amazon ECR (Elastic Container Registry)
Scope: Regional
What: Managed Docker container registry for storing and managing container images.
How: Push and pull container images to/from ECR repositories using Docker CLI or AWS SDKs.
How Much: Charges for storage of images and data transfer out of the registry.
Amazon EC2 (Elastic Compute Cloud)
Scope: Regional
What: Scalable computing service for running virtual servers (instances) in the cloud.
How: Launch EC2 instances with various configurations (e.g., general-purpose, compute-optimized, GPU instances).
How Much: Charges based on instance type, usage hours, and associated resources (e.g., EBS, data transfer).
Amazon RDS (Relational Database Service)
Scope: Regional
What: Managed relational database service supporting multiple database engines (MySQL, PostgreSQL, SQL Server, etc.).
How: Set up and manage relational databases with automated backups, scaling, and patching.
How Much: Pricing is based on instance type, storage, and I/O requests.
Amazon VPC (Virtual Private Cloud)
Scope: Regional
What: Isolated network environment for running AWS resources with control over IP address ranges, subnets, and routing.
How: Create VPCs, and configure subnets, route tables, and security groups to define network boundaries.
How Much: No additional charge for the VPC itself; charges apply for the resources (e.g., NAT Gateway, VPN) used within it.
Amazon Elastic Load Balancing (ELB)
Scope: Regional
What: Distributes incoming application traffic across multiple targets (e.g., EC2 instances) for high availability.
How: Set up load balancers (e.g., Application Load Balancer, Network Load Balancer) and configure target groups.
How Much: Charges are based on the number of hours the load balancer is running and data processed.
AWS Global Accelerator
Scope: Global
What: Service to improve the availability and performance of applications globally by routing traffic through AWS’s global network.
How: Create accelerators and configure listeners to route traffic to your applications based on geographic location.
How Much: Charges are based on the number of accelerators, data transfer, and traffic processed.
Amazon EFS (Elastic File System)
Scope: Regional
What: Managed file storage service that can be accessed from multiple EC2 instances concurrently.
How: Mount EFS to EC2 instances or on-premises servers to share file storage.
How Much: Charges based on storage usage and data transfer.
AWS Snowball
Scope: Regional
What: Data transport solution for transferring large amounts of data to and from AWS, often used for offline migration.
How: Request a Snowball device, load your data, and ship it to an AWS data center for upload.
How Much: Charges based on device type (Snowball or Snowmobile) and data transfer volume.
Amazon ElastiCache
Scope: Regional
What: Managed in-memory data store service supporting Redis and Memcached for caching application data.
How: Create ElastiCache clusters, configure cache nodes, and integrate with applications for faster data retrieval.
How Much: Charges for cache node usage (e.g., instance types, node size) and data transfer.
AWS Elastic File System (EFS)
Scope: Regional
What: Scalable file storage for use with AWS cloud services and on-premises resources.
How: Create file systems, mount them on EC2 instances, and use them for scalable file storage.
How Much: Pay for storage usage, with pricing based on the amount of data stored in the file system.