AWS Fundamentals
AMAZON WEB SERVICES (AWS) is the LARGEST cloud computing provider in the world. Started by Amazon in 2006 as a side business of running their own infrastructure, AWS now powers a HUGE chunk of the internet. Netflix, Reddit, Slack, Pinterest, NASA — all run on AWS. Anyone can sign up and pay for what they use, just like electricity.
Core AWS services. EC2 (Elastic Compute Cloud): rent virtual computers — boot one up in seconds. S3 (Simple Storage Service): store files (photos, videos, data) cheaply. RDS: managed databases. LAMBDA: run code without managing servers. CLOUDFRONT: speed up websites worldwide. There are 200+ AWS services. The complexity is real — even experienced developers specialize in just a few.
A startup needs to build a website that might serve 100 users — or might suddenly serve 1 MILLION. AWS's key feature for this is:
Why AWS dominates. (1) FIRST MOVER (2006). (2) ENORMOUS scale gives cost advantages. (3) FEATURE BREADTH no competitor matches. (4) Reliability (most regions are extremely uptime-stable). Competitors: GOOGLE CLOUD PLATFORM (GCP) and MICROSOFT AZURE are #2 and #3. Each has strengths. Many companies use multiple clouds for redundancy or specific features.
Free Tier
AWS offers a "Free Tier" for 12 months — enough to launch a tiny website. If you're curious, sign up (with parental help). Watching usage and pricing is its own learning experience. Be careful — exceeding limits can cost real money.
AWS is the modern internet's plumbing. Knowing it (or its competitors) is one of the most marketable skills in tech today. The whole field of "cloud engineering" exists around managing these services.
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