What Is Amazon Web Services and Why Is It So Successful?

Amazon Web Services (AWS), the cloud platform offered by Amazon.com Inc (AMZN), has become a giant component of the e-commerce giant`s business portfolio. In the second quarter of 2021, AWS brought in a record $14.8 billion in net sales, accounting for just over 13% of Amazon`s total net sales. Having grown steadily in the 30% range the past few quarters, AWS is a frontrunner to other cloud computing platforms such as competitor Microsoft Azure.

What Is AWS Exactly？

AWS consists of a variety of cloud computing products and services. Amazon's highly profitable divisions provide servers, storage, networking, remote computing, email, mobile development, and security. AWS can be divided into three major products: Amazon's virtual machine service EC2, low-cost cloud storage service Glacier, and Amazon's storage system S3.

AWS is so big and it exists in the computing world that it far outperforms its competitors. According to an independent analyst, AWS in the first quarter of 2021 accounted for more than one-third of the market at 32.4%, followed by Azure at 20% and Google Cloud at 9%.

AWS has 81 Availability Zones where servers are located. These service areas are divided, not only allowing users to set geographical boundaries for the service but also providing security by diversifying the physical locations where data is stored. Overall, AWS includes 245 countries and territories.

Savings Measures

Jeff Bezos compared Amazon Web Services to a utility company in the early 20th century. 100 years ago, factories that needed electricity built their power plants, but when factories were able to buy electricity from utilities, the need for expensive private power plants diminished. AWS is moving its business from physical computing technology to the cloud.

Be Scalable and Customizable

AWS adjusts costs based on customer usage, so startups and small businesses can understand the obvious benefits of using Amazon for their computing needs. AWS provides all the tools you need to start your business in the cloud, so it's perfect for building your business from scratch. For existing businesses, Amazon offers a cost-effective migration service to seamlessly migrate your existing infrastructure to AWS.

Security and Reliability

Amazon Web Services is arguably much more secure than the company that hosts your website or storage. AWS currently has dozens of data centers around the world that are continuously monitored and tightly controlled. Due to the diversification of data centers, disasters in one region do not cause permanent data loss around the world. Imagine Netflix centralizing all your personnel files, content, and backed-up data onsite the night before the hurricane.

Chaos will continue. Criticism of AWS

AWS's success is undisputed, but service critics say Amazon is abusing market share control by engaging in anti-competitive behavior. This criticism comes from an open-source database maker that claims that Amazon copies and embeds software originally developed by other technology companies.

Final Result

Amazon Web Services is an Amazon dollar box. These services are rocking the computing world in the same way that Amazon is changing American retail. With very affordable pricing for cloud products, Amazon can offer affordable and scalable services to everyone, from the latest startups to Fortune 500 companies.

Check more news