On the grounds of quality, flexibility and cost, cloud computing is quickly replacing traditional on-premise installations. What might be a surprise when we hear so much from the likes of IBM, Google and Microsoft, is that Amazon, the world’s largest e-retailer, is leading the technological charge.
AWS is a cloud platform allowing fast and cheap provisioning of computer environments offering a very high level of reliability. It is available world-wide (split into 20 regions currently) and offers over 165 services including; computing, storage, networking, database, analytics, machine-learning, application services , deployment, management, mobile and developer tools.
AWS is utilised by individuals and businesses of all scales, and it’s fair to say, that it’s the market-leader in cloud computing. Notable customers include; Netflix, LinkedIn, Facebook, BBC, ESPN, many major banks and NASA. It holds a dominant market position;
The advantages of adopting a cloud model are well recognised;
Fast, easy implementation: no hardware provisioning lead times mean that new servers can be available within a few minutes.
Highly scalable: managed services for database, storage, backup, infrastructure and application management that can be scaled at will.
Reliable and available: reliability and availability of well-architected cloud-based solutions far exceeds that of those provided on-premise.
Cost: a zero requirement for Capex coupled with low usage charges mean that the business case for cloud computing is easily made in terms of cost.
However, what sets AWS apart can be attributed to three things;
Functionality and pace of innovation: AWS added 422 new services and features in the first half of this year versus 722 in all of last year. It also continues to keep up with important trends by adding data analytics and machine-learning functionalities.
Partner and customer ecosystem: AWS struck a big partnership deal with Salesforce last quarter, while adding a bunch of customers running SAP on AWS, like GE Oil & Gas, Kellogg's, and Brooks Brothers. It's also expanded to 20 infrastructure regions globally.
Experience: AWS started offering public cloud-computing services nearly 10 years ago, way before any of its competitors did. That's given it a huge head start, as AWS's revenue is estimated to be as much as over four times Microsoft Azure's, the second-largest provider.
Having just completed a project launching a new application in AWS, I can’t see Amazon’s domination ending any time soon.
www.labrador.technology
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