Amazon Web Services cloud computing and web hosting are not just for mega-corporations like Netflix and Comcast. Small business owners and entrepreneurs can also take advantage of many AWS products.
The problem is that the list of AWS services is so extensive is very difficult to find exactly what you’re looking for. That’s why we picked up a list of the most useful AWS components to share for those who are just starting a business and want to take advantage of the cloud:
1. Amazon SES (Simple Email Service)
Amazon SES home page.
This is a great email sending tool that is very easy to set up and operate. Your emails will be digitally signed by Amazon which keeps them from being labeled as spam. It’s a very reliable service with dedicated IP addresses. It is also cost-effective since you only pay for what you use.
The first 62,000 emails you send each month are free if you send them from an application hosted in Amazon EC2. Highly recommended to anyone who is starting a business and needs an email solution.
2. Amazon EC2 (Elastic Cloud 2)
Amazon EC2 Dashboard.
Not every business has access to expensive, high-powered computers, so finding the right cloud computing solution is their only choice.
EC2 is arguably the most expansive and customizable cloud infrastructure in the market. It provides secure and resizable compute capacity in the cloud. This software greatly optimizes the task of having a computer in the cloud while maintaining a reasonable price since you can increase or decrease capacity within minutes and pay for what you use.
3. Amazon Route 53
Creating a hosted zone in Route 53.
Route 53 provides a vastly scalable DNS infrastructure that’s easy to configure. It includes monitoring and management tools through an intuitive UI, and the hosting infrastructure is very fast and reliable, and it’s fairly easy to set up.
Also, there are a large number of DNS hostnames available and you pay only for the resources you use, such as the number of queries that the service answers for each of your domains, hosted zones, and optional traffic policies and health checks.
4. AWS Lightsail
WordPress administration panel in Lightsail.
The easiest way to get started with AWS for small projects. Lightsail is a simple cloud platform that makes creating a website or an application extremely easy. It provides you with everything you need to mount your web server in a matter of minutes.
This tool was designed with beginners in mind, with clear and pre-determined storage limits, email hosting, web framework support, e-commerce integration, and many other features. Monthly plans are predictable and clear, too.
5. Amazon Chime
Group meeting in Chime.
Chime is a communication service for work chat and business meetings. It allows you to schedule meetings with integrated calendar and email software, call recording, screen share, cue up slideshows for display, annotation, among others.
The interface is clean and simple and call quality is generally very good.
6. AWS Glue
Data catalog in AWS Glue.
Glue is a server less solution for fully managed extract, transform, and load (ETL) for data analytics.
This product gives you access to the AWS Management Console where you can point it to your raw data to store the associated metadata in the Glue Data Catalog. You can convert large amounts of data and retrieve it as required for ETL.
It makes it simple and cost-effective to categorize and clean your data. It can also connect with your Oracle database.
7. Amazon Quicksight
Data visualization in Quicksight.
Quicksight is a Business Intelligence server that runs totally on the AWS cloud. It has great analytic and reporting capabilities (although limited for advanced users), excellent for creating basic records for service individuals.
The user interface is designed for beginners in mind, making it easier for your company to understand and make full use of the tool right away. Dashboards can be accessed from any device, and the service lets you give access to everyone to the data they need with its Pay-per-Session pricing.
8. Amazon Relational Database Service (RDS)
Creating an SQL database in RDS.
RDS is a basic and cost-effective database tool in the cloud that’s easy for you to set up and use. It offers resizable capacity and manages your database administration tasks for you.
The code you use with your databases today can be used with RDS since it gives you access to MySQL, Oracle or Microsoft SQL Server engines.
It offers anomaly detection that alerts users when unauthorized parties or malware is detected allowing administrators to remedy the issue. Organize components of the database to maintain efficiency, create and relinquish database access credentials, documents access and alterations for analytics and reporting, among other great features.
Do you know any other AWS components that should have been on this list? Let us know in the comments!
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