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Amazon Web Services Review

Amazon Web Services is the Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) or cloud computing service provided by Amazon. It is a subsidiary of Amazon, and as a result, has many advantages offering worldwide care of your website and it is considered one of the market leaders for website development. Within 2020 it had sales in excess of $200 billion and therefore is larger than Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform and IBM. But is the cloud hosting service good for you? In this review, we look at Amazon Web Services to find out.

Amazon Web Services Overview

Amazon Web Services is a cloud-based hosting platform. Therefore, you have significant advantages in several fields. To give you a quick insight into how their platform is being used, they have some big names on their website. Netflix for instance is one of their biggest clients and more than one in four adults within the US stream something on Netflix every day in the US. You can tell how much power Amazon Web Services have for a website.

Other big names that are using Amazon include Unilever, Kellogg’s and Samsung.

The platform allows you to use numerous languages within your dashboard and for your website. There are 15 standard languages including English, French, Spanish, German, Japanese and two variants of Chinese.

Why use Amazon Web Services?

The features of Amazon are really big. They have to be if they’re able to service high-end video streaming services like Netflix. The basic features include everything that you could possibly want from a web host including SSL support, manually configured backups, spam protection, Content Delivery Networks and more. This is all configurable so it is better suited for your specific needs.

The infrastructure for Amazon Web Services is really big. It has to big, it has the largest in the world with 64 zones in 21 regions and there are 169 presence points. This is more than Google Cloud Platforms that have 61 zones in 20 regions. Therefore, the cloud services offer better reliability and speed for your website. Speed is important, it offers better ranking on search engines, better visitor experiences and improved conversions.

And there are other problems that Amazon Web Services has solved. A study in 2018 found that the hosting platform had far less downtime than other cloud hosting providers. And they offer an uptime service-legal agreement. If you have uptime that is less than 99.99%, you’ll get compensation that is based on a sliding scale from 10%-100% based on how long your website was down for. But considering their uptime is the top in the industry, there aren’t many times when this is paid out.

And you have to remember that the Amazon eCommerce store and Netflix are based on infrastructure and if either of those go down, you can be sure that some people would be upset. Therefore, they put a lot of effort into keeping their infrastructure up and running and they pride their service on it.

Another great feature of Amazon Web Services is that it is scale-able. You won’t need to worry if there is a sudden spike in traffic or data. The host will automatically adjust your resources to protect your website. And you’ll only be billed for the amount that you use.

There is also a Marketplace where you can buy software that will run on your AWS. If you’re a software developer, you can sell your own programs on this marketplace and customers can benefit from a significant large library of products, this includes operating systems, machine learning and DevOps.

The final advantage of Amazon Web Services is the cost. While it is expensive compared to some of the other hosting options available, for a large cloud hosting service, the cost per gigabyte of usage isn’t too bad. There are also options for you to get free services for one year, but there are certain features that aren’t so if you want to avoid all costs, be sure that what is on offer is what you need.

What are the Negatives of Using Amazon Web Services?

For all the benefits of using Amazon Web Services, you are going to find that there are some downsides to using the host. For one, it is not a service that is designed for those new to website development or the small business owner who hasn’t the technical skills. You will need experience and skills in order to use Amazon Web Services, even if you use the preconfigured settings on the Elastic Computer Cloud

You’re also not going to have a significant lot of help as a newcomer. For instance, you’re not going to benefit from free migration or good support that is friendly. In addition, you’re not going to be offered automatic backups or a website building tool. You’ll have to learn to do this yourself.

That doesn’t mean that you can’t benefit from Amazon Web Services however. There are other options for you to benefit from Amazon Web Services and that is using Cloudways. Cloudways allows you to use the AWS infrastructure, but with the managed support to make the most out of your platform. With Cloudways, you can even have an installed WordPress or Joomla website on your Amazon Web Service server using Cloudways without too much trouble.

As previously said, Amazon doesn’t offer the best support. It is very technical and it is costly. But if you’re a developer, you’re unlikely to need this.

Final Word: Is Amazon Web Services a Good Choice?

If you were going on performance alone, there are few options that can rival Amazon. And that isn’t a surprise. Amazon has built its reputation on reliability and a reassuring presence across its brand and it hosts some pretty big players that require the same standards. Therefore, you’re going to get a fast website that can handle a lot of traffic.

However, there are problems with the Amazon Web Services that you need to be aware of. The first is that the cloud host isn’t for those new to web hosting and the costs can be high. Technically, you’re going to need some experience or skills. But if you want to benefit from Amazon Web Services still, then you can use other services like Cloudways that can allow you to use the service without technical skills.

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