What is Amazon Web Services?
Amazon Web Services, or AWS, is Amazon's cloud platform, where a business rents virtual servers, storage, databases and networking and pays for running time and the amount used.
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What it is
AWS offers the same kinds of building blocks as other cloud providers. EC2 provides virtual machines. S3 is object storage, which keeps files and backups as objects reached over the network rather than as a disk. AWS also sells managed databases and virtual networks that can connect to an office.
S3 became so widely used that many other storage products copy its interface. "S3-compatible" means tools written for S3 can usually talk to them unchanged. Microsoft's counterpart is described in our guide to Microsoft Azure.
Why it matters to a business
- A bill made of small items: running servers, stored data and traffic leaving AWS are each charged separately, and the charge for data leaving is easy to miss in an estimate.
- Capacity on demand: Amazon owns the equipment, so capacity can grow or shrink with the workload.
- Regions: each resource lives in a region you pick, and a backup in the same region as the original does not protect against a regional outage.
- Your side of security: permissions, patching, backups and public access settings are your job. One storage bucket left open to the public can leak private files.
How KawaConnect works with Amazon Web Services
We do not resell AWS. When a business already runs workloads there, we support the Linux servers and containers, connect them to the office network over a VPN, and review cost and backups.
We also host our own encrypted S3-compatible object storage on Ceph for offsite backups, which works with tools written for S3. Our backup and recovery service describes how that fits into a recovery plan.
If you are unsure a workload should stay in AWS, we price the same workload on your own Proxmox hardware and set the two side by side.
Related services
Linux and Kubernetes
Support for Linux servers and containers, wherever they run.
Backup and recovery
Encrypted offsite backups and tested restores.
Cloud infrastructure
Hybrid designs, migrations and recovery planning.
Learn more
- Amazon Web Services on WikipediaA neutral overview of the platform and its main services, helpful as a first read.
- Amazon Web Services websiteAmazon's own description of its cloud services, for owners comparing providers.
- AWS documentationOfficial guides for EC2, S3 and other services, written for the IT staff who set them up.
Already running in AWS?
Describe what is there. We will review cost, access and backups.
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