Amazon Web Services (AWS) is a comprehensive, evolving cloud computing platform provided by Amazon.com. In this post, we’ll cover the top benefits of AWS for businesses.
Amazon presents its Web Services platform as a set of building blocks that can be used to create just about any kind of cloud computing application. It offers a mix of infrastructure as a service (IaaS), platform as a service (PaaS), and packaged software as a service (SaaS).
AWS cloud platform was launched in 2006 to offer IT resources on demand. Today, it’s a key driver of growth and digital transformation for many businesses, including some of the world’s most recognizable brands.
Adopting AWS allows organizations to focus on their core business and leave the undifferentiated heavy lifting of IT to AWS.
Table of Contents
What is AWS?
Amazon Web Services (AWS) is a cloud platform that provides customers with on-demand access to a variety of services, including compute power, storage, databases, and analytics.
Used by businesses of all sizes across a wide range of industries, including healthcare, finance, retail, and media, AWS is now the most popular cloud platform on the market.
In simpler terms, AWS is a way for businesses to rent access to the resources they need, when they need them, without having to make a large upfront investment.
This pay-as-you-go approach makes AWS an attractive option for businesses that want to avoid the high costs of traditional infrastructure.
Cloud computing isn’t the future, it’s already here. And with AWS, businesses of all sizes can take advantage of cloud computing in a way that works for them.
How is AWS used?
We can compare AWS to a traditional infrastructure in which a business owns and maintains its own physical servers.
AWS is used in a variety of ways, including web and application hosting, storage, database management, analytics, and much more.
It can be used to build sophisticated applications that incorporate multiple services such as databases, messaging, compute and storage services.
Ultimately, how AWS is used depends on the needs of the business. Common use cases include:
- Web and mobile applications: The ability to host web and mobile applications makes it a popular choice for startups and businesses that need to scale quickly.
- Storage and backup: With so many scalable storage options, businesses can confidently store large amounts of data with this solution.
- Big data and analytics: AWS offers a number of services for businesses that need to process and analyze large data sets.
- IoT (internet of things): The platform can power IoT applications, making it possible to collect, process, and analyze data from devices at scale.
- Machine learning: Its many services make it easy to build and deploy machine learning models.
- DevOps (development and operations): The availability of several DevOps tools allows businesses to automate the process of provisioning, configuring, and managing resources.
- Disaster recovery: AWS can be used to create disaster recovery plans for faster recovery from outages and disruptions.
10 Benefits of AWS for Businesses
There are many reasons why businesses choose to use AWS, but the top 10 benefits of AWS can be summarized as follows:
1. Cost savings
One of the biggest benefits of AWS is that it can help businesses save money.
As mentioned previously, businesses can avoid the high upfront costs of traditional infrastructure with AWS and pay only for the resources they use.
Traditionally, businesses had to invest in hardware and software upfront, which often led to overspending.
Let’s look at this for example – if a business needs to run a website that gets 1000 visitors per day, they would need to purchase and maintain enough servers to support this traffic.
With AWS, the business only pays for the compute resources they use when someone visits their website. This can result in significant cost savings.
2. Flexibilty
Another key benefit of AWS is its flexibility.
Businesses are able to customize their virtual environment – whether the operating system, database, programming language, or something else – to meet their specific needs.
Especially in today’s climate, the migration process to the cloud should be as frictionless as possible – and AWS makes that possible.
Regardless of your use case or industry, AWS can be tailored to fit your needs, whether you’re looking for a single cloud-hosted application or an entire suite of integrated solutions.
3. Reliability
AWS is known for being reliable, with an uptime of 99.9%.
This makes it a great platform for mission-critical applications that need to be available 24/7. AWS also offers the ability to deploy resources across multiple availability zones for even greater reliability.
The cloud platform also has a number of features that make it easier to ensure reliability, such as autoscaling and auto-healing.
Autoscaling allows businesses to automatically scale their resources up or down based on demand, while auto-healing enables them to quickly identify and replace any faulty components.
4. Security
Businesses can take advantage of advanced security features, such as identity and access management, to help protect their data.
Their tough infrastructure with an end-to-end approach is designed to withstand attacks and AWS provides customers with tools to help them monitor and respond to threats.
When it comes to storage, Amazon S3 provides customers with a secure and reliable way to store and access data. The service is designed to be highly scalable and resilient, with built-in redundancy.
Fine-grain identity and access controls can be applied to S3 buckets and objects, giving customers control over who has access to their data.
Security tasks can be automated with AWS CloudFormation, making it easier for businesses to manage their security policies.
And, you can rest easy knowing that AWS takes privacy seriously, with comprehensive customer data protection and compliance measures.
5. Compliance
By compliance, we mean that certain businesses are required to follow specific regulations.
Financial services companies in the United States, for example, must comply with the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, while healthcare, education, and energy companies must comply with HIPAA and other regulations.
AWS provides a number of compliance-related features and services, such as data encryption and identity and access management, to help businesses meet these requirements.
6. High-Performance
Interested in delivering your applications quickly and efficiently? Taking advantage of AWS features such as auto-scaling and load balancing will help ensure your applications are always available and running optimally.
AWS can help businesses improve their performance by offering a variety of cloud-based services, including Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2), which provides high-performance computing resources, and Amazon CloudFront, which delivers content quickly and securely to users around the world.
Others include machine learning (ML) and analytics services, such as Amazon SageMaker and Amazon Athena. These services provide the tools businesses need to quickly and easily analyze their data for insights.
Fast networking in the cloud is also possible with AWS, thanks to its Elastic Load Balancing (ELB) and Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (VPC).
With ELB, businesses can balance their workloads across multiple instances for increased performance, while VPC allows businesses to create isolated private networks in the cloud.
7. Developer Tools
Developer tools are designed to make it easier for developers to create, deploy, and manage applications – and AWS provides developers with what they need to build applications quickly and easily.
By leveraging developer tools, developers can save time and money by automating tedious tasks.
They also benefit from access to AWS’s extensive library of pre-built applications that can help them get their projects off the ground quickly.
Services such as Amazon Elastic Beanstalk and Amazon CloudFormation can help them automate the process of creating and deploying applications.
Other ways developers can improve productivity with AWS include using AWS CodeCommit to store and manage source code.
8. Integration
Thanks to its many integrations with other Amazon services, as well as third-party services, AWS makes it easy for businesses to get started with cloud computing.
AWS provides a wide range of services that can be easily integrated into existing business infrastructure. This allows businesses to add new features and capabilities without having to make major changes or invest in new hardware or software.
For instance, if a business wants to add mobile capabilities to its website, it can take advantage of Amazon’s Mobile SDK and Web Services.
These tools allow businesses to quickly develop and deploy mobile apps that connect directly with their existing infrastructure.
9. Management Console
The AWS management console is a web-based interface that provides users with a simple way to interact with and manage their AWS resources – essentially a place where you can access and manage everything on the cloud.
It provides a graphical view of all the resources associated with an account, as well as tools for creating and configuring new resources.
Compared to traditional command-line interfaces, the AWS management console saves time and makes it easier for users to get the most out of their AWS services.
Not only that, but your business gets access to 350+ free digital training courses through the AWS Academy, covering topics such as cloud fundamentals, DevOps, security, and big data.
This means you can train your employees on how to use AWS, and in turn, help them become more efficient at their jobs.
10. Scalability
With an on-demand service, businesses can quickly spin up new servers as needed with just a few clicks. This makes it much easier to scale resources up or down as demand changes, allowing businesses to save costs and maintain performance even during peak periods.
For example, if a business is expecting a sudden surge in traffic due to an advertising campaign or seasonal event, they can easily add more capacity to their server infrastructure to handle the increased load.
Bru Textiles, a specialty textile company in Belgium, was able to quickly scale its infrastructure by leveraging AWS. Bru Textiles went digital to grow and offer new services. Embracing technology, they brought in digital twin technology to give their customers an idea of the texture and essence of their physical fabrics.
And then when it was time they needed speed and scalability, in came AWS.
With Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud and Amazon EC2 Spot Instances, Twinbru (their new business unit that digitizes Bru fabrics), they were able to render 3D models 400 times faster.
Rendering became more flexible and highly scalable, and they reduced compute costs by 60% per month.
AWS allowed this company to future-proof their business and ditch the constraints of tradition.
FINAL WORD
Amazon Web Services offers businesses the opportunity to benefit from the flexibility and scalability of cloud computing.
From faster deployment times to reduced costs, AWS provides a cost-effective solution for organizations looking to achieve their goals in an efficient manner.
Additionally, its vast range of services makes it easy for organizations to find solutions that meet their specific needs.
With AWS, businesses can quickly scale up or down as needed and stay competitive in today’s fast-paced digital environment.
