Let’s start with a story before explaining these AWS Services. Imagine walking into a candy store as a kid. At first, there were only three core treats: lollipops, gummy bears, and chocolate coins. But as time went on, the store kept expanding, adding new and exciting candies to its shelves. Now, it’s a candy wonderland with over 200 sweets that delight kids and adults from all over the world. Well, believe it or not, web services or AWS is kind of like that candy store. When it first launched in 2006, AWS only offered three core services: EC2 for compute instances, SQS for messaging, and S3 for object storage. But just like our candy store, AWS kept growing and innovating, and today it has over 200 different services that cater to the needs of developers and businesses from all over the world. From household names like Netflix and Airbnb to startups and small businesses, everyone is using AWS to bring together their vision and products. But with so many options, it’s easy to feel like a kid in a candy store—overwhelmed and unsure where to start.

AWS Crash Course for Beginners

Now, don’t worry because today we’re going on an AWS crash course for beginners, and we’ll be covering the 20 must-know services that will satisfy your cravings for AWS Cloud. Before we get started, you should check out my other articles where I share free resources, tutorials, reviews, and so much more, helping you make your cloud move.

Four Unknown but Powerful AWS Services

Okay, as we dive into the 20 must-know AWS services, I want to quickly share four unknown but powerful AWS services that you probably didn’t know existed. These are like the hidden gems in the candy store—the unique, lesser-known treats that can really make your project stand out.

AWS Sumerian

First up, we have AWS Sumerian, a managed service for creating AR and VR applications. It’s like having a virtual candy store where you can design and build your own immersive experience. Under the hood Sumerian uses,

• Web-Based Development: Sumerian uses WebGL and WebVR technologies to render interactive scenes in a web browser.
• Scripting API: It provides a web-based editor and a scripting API that lets you add logic and behaviors to your creations without diving deep into complex coding.
• 3D Asset and AWS Service Integration: You can import 3D assets, create animations, and even integrate with other AWS services like AWS Lambda for serverless compute or Amazon Polly for voice interfaces.
• Simplified Rendering and Cross-Platform Access: Sumerian handles the heavy lifting of rendering and hosting, so you can focus on crafting and building delightful experiences that can be accessed on any device with a browser.

Amazon Polly

Next, we have Amazon Polly, a text-to-speech service that uses advanced deep learning to synthesize natural-sounding speech. It’s like having a voice actor in a box, ready to narrate your content. Polly supports a wide range of languages and voices, each powered by sophisticated neural networks trained on hours of speech data.

• Easy Customization: You can customize the pronunciation, add pauses and breathing, and even control the speech rate and pitch to match your desired style.
• Easy Integration: Polly’s API makes it easy to integrate lifelike speech into your applications. You simply send the text you want to convert, choose a voice, and Polly returns an audio stream that you can play back or store for later use.
• Cost-Effective and Scalable Solution: It’s a cost-effective and scalable solution for creating engaging voice experiences.

AWS Textract

The third unknown service is AWS Textract, a fully managed service that uses machine learning to extract text and data from scanned documents. It’s like having a smart scanner that can understand the structure and content of your documents. Textract helps you with

• Advanced OCR: Textract goes beyond simple OCR (optical character recognition) by identifying and extracting key elements like tables, forms, and fields.
• Document Formatting: It can handle a variety of document formats, including PDFs, images, and even handwritten content.
• Computer Vision and NLP: Under the hood, Textract uses a combination of computer vision and natural language processing to analyze the layouts and semantics of each document.
• Structured Data Output: It returns structured data that you can easily integrate into your applications or workflows, saving you hours of manual data entry and processing.

Amazon Rekognition

Last but not least of our hidden gems, we have Amazon Rekognition, a deep learning image and video analysis service. It’s like giving your applications a set of superpowered eyes that can detect and recognize all sorts of visual content. Rekognition can be used for,

• Object, Scene, and Face Detection: Rekognition uses convolutional neural networks trained on millions of images and videos to detect objects, scenes, faces, and even emotions.
• Applications: You can use it for tasks like facial recognition, content moderation, or visual search.
• Simple API: Rekognition provides a simple API that lets you send images or videos and receive back a set of labels, bounding boxes, and confidence scores for each detected element.
• Custom Model Training and Video Analysis: It scans each frame in your videos. You can also train your own custom models using your specific dataset to detect unique objects or scenes relevant to your use case.

Core AWS Services

Alright, now let’s dive into the core AWS services, starting with the compute category. These services are like the power generators of your candy store, providing the necessary resources to run your applications.

Compute

Amazon EC2 (Elastic Compute Cloud)

First up, we have Amazon EC2, or Elastic Compute Cloud. It’s like having a fleet of virtual machines at your command, ready to crunch numbers and serve your applications.

• Instance Types: With EC2, you can provision virtual servers in the cloud, choosing from a variety of instance types that offer different combinations of computing power, such as CPU, memory, storage, and networking capacity. It’s kind of like picking the right size and flavor of candy for your needs. With EC2, you have complete control over your instances, from the operating system to the software stack.
• Scalability: You can scale your fleet up or down based on demand, ensuring you have the right amount of compute power to handle your workload.

AWS Lambda

Next, we have AWS Lambda, the serverless computing service that lets you run code without provisioning or managing any servers. It’s like having a magic wand that can summon compute power on demand. Obviously, under the hood, Lambda does use servers, but don’t tell anyone that!

• Event-Driven Execution and Automatic Scaling: With Lambda, you can execute code in response to triggers like API requests, file uploads, or scheduled events. You simply upload your code, choose your language runtime, and specify your trigger. Lambda takes care of the rest, automatically scaling your code execution based on incoming requests.
• Pay-Per-Use: The beauty of Lambda is that you only pay for the compute time you consume, measured in milliseconds. It’s like paying for just the candy you want to eat, rather than buying the whole store, making it a cost-effective option for workloads with variable or unpredictable traffic patterns.

AWS ElasticBeanstalk

Moving on, we have AWS Elastic Beanstalk, a fully managed service for deploying and scaling web applications. Beanstalk is like having a team of expert candy makers who handle all the details of packaging and distributing your candies.

• Simple Deployment Process: With Elastic Beanstalk, you simply upload your application code, choose your language runtime, and specify your environment preferences. Elastic Beanstalk automatically handles the deployment, from provisioning the underlying resources to load balancing and auto-scaling.
• Control Over AWS Resources: You retain full control over the AWS resources powering your application, but Elastic Beanstalk takes care of the management overhead.
• Ideal for Developers: It’s a great option for developers who want to focus on writing code rather than managing infrastructure.

Amazon ECS (Elastic Container Service) and Amazon EKS (Elastic Kubernetes Service)

And the final ones of the compute category are Amazon ECS and EKS, the container orchestration services that let you run and scale containerized applications. It’s like having a fleet of candy delivery trucks that automatically route to the right destinations.

Amazon ECS (Elastic Container Service)

ECS, or Elastic Container Service, is a fully managed container orchestration platform that supports Docker containers. You can define your applications as a set of containers, specify the resources they need, and ECS will handle deployment and scaling across a cluster of EC2 instances.

Amazon EKS (Elastic Kubernetes Service)

EKS, or Elastic Kubernetes Service, is a managed service for running Kubernetes, the popular open-source container orchestration system. With EKS, you can deploy and manage Kubernetes clusters on AWS, taking advantage of native Kubernetes features and tools. Both ECS and EKS abstract away the complexity of managing containers at scale, letting you focus on designing and shipping your applications.

Network and Content Delivery

Alright, let’s move on to the Network and Content Delivery category. These services are like the candy delivery system of your applications, ensuring that your content reaches your users quickly and securely.

Amazon VPC (Virtual Private Cloud)

First, we have Amazon VPC, or Virtual Private Cloud. It’s like having your own private candy factory, completely isolated from the outside world. With VPC, you can provision a logically isolated section of the AWS Cloud where you can launch resources in a virtual network that you define.

• Customizable Network Configuration: You have complete control over your virtual network environment, including IP ranges, subnets, route tables, and network gateways.
• Security: You can use your VPC to create a secure and private network for your applications, keeping your candy recipes safe from prying eyes.
• Integration with On-Premise Networks: You can also establish a VPN connection between your VPCs and your on-premise networks, allowing you to seamlessly extend your existing infrastructure to the cloud.

Amazon CloudFront

Next, we have Amazon CloudFront, a global content delivery network, also known as a CDN, that accelerates the delivery of your content to users worldwide. It’s like having a fleet of supersonic candy delivery trucks that can instantly teleport your candy to any location around the world.

• Edge Location Network: With CloudFront, you can distribute your static and dynamic web content, videos, APIs, and other assets to a network of edge locations spread across the globe.
• Fast Content Delivery: When a user requests your content, CloudFront routes the request to the nearest edge location, ensuring the fastest possible delivery.
• Advanced Features: CloudFront also provides advanced features like real-time metrics, access logs, and geo-restriction, giving you fine-grained control over your content distribution.
• Origin Server Load Reduction: It can help you improve the performance, availability, and security of your applications, all while reducing the load on your origin servers.

Amazon Route 53

We also have Amazon Route 53, a highly available and scalable Domain Name System (DNS) web service. It’s like having a master directory that guides users to the right candy store locations.

• Domain Name Registration: With Route 53, you can register domain names, route traffic to your applications, and configure DNS health checks to monitor the availability of your resources.
• Domain Name Mapping: You can use it to map friendly domain names to your EC2 instances, load balancers, or S3 buckets, making it easier for users to find and access your applications.
• Advanced Routing Policies: Route 53 also supports advanced routing policies like latency-based routing, geolocation routing, and failover routing, allowing you to optimize the performance and availability of your applications based on the location and health of your resources.

AWS Storage Services

Alright, now let’s dive into AWS Storage Services. These services are like the pantry of your candy factory, providing you with a place to store and retrieve all the ingredients you need to make your delicious applications.

Amazon S3 (Simple Storage Service)

First up, we have Amazon S3, or Simple Storage Service. It’s like having a bottomless cauldron where you can store and retrieve any type of data at any time from anywhere on the web. S3 is an object storage service that offers,

• Scalability and Availability: Industry-leading scalability, data availability, security, and performance. You can use it to store and retrieve any amount of data from anywhere in the world and at any time. It’s like having a magic bag that can hold an infinite amount of candy, and you can always reach in and grab exactly what you need.
• Large File Storage: With S3, you can store and retrieve files of up to 5 terabytes in size, organize your data into buckets and folders, and set fine-grained access controls and encryption options to ensure the security of your data.
• Use Cases: S3 is perfect for storing static content, media files, backups, and any other data that needs to be accessible from the web.

Amazon EBS and Amazon EFS

Next up, we have Amazon EBS and EFS, two powerful storage services that can enhance your compute instances with reliable and fast storage.

Amazon EBS (Elastic Block Store)

EBS, or Elastic Block Storage, provides persistent block-level storage volumes for use with EC2 instances. It’s like giving your virtual machines their own personal candy stash that can be accessed quickly and reliably.

• Storage Volume Sizes attachable to EC2: With EBS, you can create storage volumes from 1 GB to 16 terabytes in size and attach them to your EC2 instances.
• Optimized Volume Types: You can choose from a variety of volume types, each optimized for different workloads and performance requirements.
• High Availability and Durability: EBS volumes automatically replicate within the availability zone to protect you from component failures, offering high availability and durability.

Amazon EFS (Elastic File System)

EFS, or Elastic File System, provides a simple, scalable, and fully managed file system for use with AWS compute services. It’s like having a shared candy jar that all your compute instances can access simultaneously.

• Scalability: With EFS, you can create a file system that grows and shrinks automatically as you add and remove files, without needing to provision storage in advance.
• Multiple Availability Zone Support with NFS Compatibility: You can mount your EFS file system on multiple EC2 instances, even across multiple availability zones, enabling your applications to scale seamlessly. EFS supports the Network File System (NFS) protocol, making it compatible with a wide range of applications and tools.

AWS Database Services

Now, let’s talk about AWS Database Services. These services are like the recipe books of your candy factory, providing you with a place to store and manage all the structured data your applications need to function.

Amazon RDS (Relational Database Service)

First up, we have Amazon RDS, or Relational Database Service. It’s like having a master chef who can manage databases of all flavors, so you can focus on cooking up delicious applications. With RDS, you can choose from a variety of popular database engines, including MySQL, PostgreSQL, Oracle, SQL Server, and MariaDB.

• Database Administration: RDS takes care of all the boring but important tasks of database administration, like provisioning, patching, backup, recovery, and scaling, so you can focus on using the database to power your application. RDS provides features to enhance the reliability, performance, and security of your databases, like automatic failover, read replicas, and encryption at rest.
• Scalability: You can easily scale your databases up or down based on your workload requirements, without any downtime. It’s like having a magic recipe book that can adjust ingredients and portions based on how many people you’re serving.

Amazon DynamoDB

Next, we have Amazon DynamoDB, a fully managed NoSQL database service that can handle massive amounts of data with lightning-fast performance. It’s like having a secret stash of high-powered candy that can fuel your applications at any scale.

• Scalability: With DynamoDB, you can store and retrieve any amount of data and serve any level of request traffic without worrying about scaling, sharding, or rebalancing. DynamoDB automatically spreads your data and traffic across a sufficient number of servers to handle your throughput requirements, offering seamless scalability and high availability.
• Key-Value and Document Database: DynamoDB is a key-value and document database that provides single-digit millisecond latency at any scale. It’s perfect for use cases like user profiles, session data, product catalogs, and real-time analytics, where you need fast and predictable performance at massive scale. It’s like having a magic candy machine that can instantly dispense any type of candy, no matter how many people are asking for it.

Amazon ElasticCache

Last but not least in the database category, we have Amazon ElastiCache, a fully managed in-memory caching service that can supercharge your application’s performance. It’s like having a secret potion that can make your candy-making process lightning-fast.

• High-Performance Caching: With ElastiCache, you can deploy and run high-performance memory cache or Redis clusters in the cloud without worrying about the underlying infrastructure.
• Reduced Database Load: ElastiCache helps improve the response times of your applications and reduce the load on your databases by storing frequently accessed data in memory for ultra-fast retrieval.
• Reliability and Security: It provides features to enhance the reliability and security of your caching clusters, like automatic failover, backups, and encryption in transit.
• Scalability with Improved Application Response Times: You can also easily scale your clusters up or down based on your workload requirements without any downtime. It’s like having a magic spell that can instantly summon more candy-making elves when your factory gets busy.

AWS Security and Identity Services

Alright, let’s now explore AWS Security and Identity Services, which act as the gatekeepers of your candy factory, ensuring that only authorized personnel can access your delicious creations.

AWS IAM (Identity and Access Management)

The star of the show is AWS IAM, or Identity and Access Management. It’s like having a highly trained security guard that you can customize to protect different parts of your candy factory. With IAM, you can create and manage user accounts, groups, and roles that grant specific permissions and access to your AWS resources. It’s like giving each employee a unique security badge that determines which part of the factory they can enter and what actions they can perform.

• Least Privilege Principle: IAM allows you to implement the principle of least privilege, which means giving each user or role only the permissions they need to do their job—and nothing more.
• Access Control: This helps you reduce the risk of accidental or malicious misuse of your resources, like a rogue employee stealing your secret candy recipes.
• Security Features: IAM provides a suite of features to enhance the security of your user accounts, like multi-factor authentication (MFA), password policies, and access key rotation.
• External Access: You can also use IAM to grant access to your AWS resources to users or services outside your AWS account, like business partners or third-party applications, without sharing your secret access keys.
• Centralized Management: IAM is deeply integrated with all other AWS services, so you can use it to control access to your EC2 instances, S3 buckets, RDS databases, and more—all from a single central location. It’s like having a master key that can lock and unlock all the doors in your candy factory, based on who’s holding it.

AWS Application Integration Services

Next, we have the AWS Application Integration Services, which are like the digital conveyor belts that help your candy store run smoothly and efficiently by allowing different parts of your application to communicate and work seamlessly together.

Amazon SNS (Simple Notification Service)

First up, we have Amazon SNS, or Simple Notification Service. It’s like having a magical loudspeaker that can broadcast messages far and wide across your candy factory and even beyond its walls.

• Publish-Subscribe Model Supports Wide Range of Endpoints: With SNS, you can send notifications from your application to a variety of endpoints, such as mobile devices, email addresses, HTTP/HTTPS endpoints, and even other AWS services. It’s like sending a message to all your candy factory employees at once, telling them that a new batch of candy is ready for packaging. SNS uses a publish-subscribe model, where you create topics that represent different subjects or events and then allow other parts of your application to subscribe to those topics.
• Real-Time Delivery: When you publish a message to a topic, SNS automatically sends the message to all its subscribers, ensuring that everyone gets the message in real-time.
• Scalable and Fully Managed: SNS is fully managed and highly scalable, so you can send billions of messages per day without worrying about the underlying infrastructure. It’s like having a team of messenger birds that can deliver your messages instantly, no matter how many people there are.

Amazon SQS (Simple Queue Service)

Next, we have Amazon SQS, or Simple Queue Service. It’s like having a team of highly disciplined messaging minions that create unbreakable queues for your candy factory workloads.

• Message Persistence: With SQS, you can send, store, and receive messages between different parts of your application without losing any messages or requiring all parts to be available at the same time. It’s like having a conveyor belt that can hold onto candy packages until the next workstation is ready to process them.
• Decoupling: SQS uses a message queue model, where you create queues that act as buffers between different parts of your application. When one part of your application sends messages to a queue, SQS stores the message until another part of your application is ready to receive and process it. This helps you decouple your application components and ensures that they can work independently without blocking each other.
• Scalable and Fully Managed: SQS is fully managed and highly scalable, so you can process hundreds of thousands of messages per second without worrying about the underlying infrastructure. It’s like having a team of tireless message minions that keep your factory workflows running smoothly, no matter how busy things get.

AWS Amplify

Last but not least of the application integration services, we have AWS Amplify. It’s like having a magic wand that connects your candy factory to the cloud, making it easier for you to deploy, build, and manage your candy applications.

• Full-Stack Development Platform with Framework Integration: With Amplify, you can build full-stack web and mobile applications using your favorite front-end frameworks like React, Angular, or Vue and easily connect them to a variety of AWS services, like S3, Lambda, and DynamoDB. It’s like having a pre-assembled candy factory kit that you can customize and extend to meet your needs.
• Simplified Development Tools: Amplify provides a suite of tools and features to simplify your application development workflow, like a CLI for creating and managing your backend resources, a library of UI components for building your front-end, and a hosting service for deploying your application with a single command. It’s like having a team of magic elves that can set up your candy factory in the cloud so you can focus on making your delicious candy.

AWS Machine Learning Services

Okay, now we’re ready for two magical AWS Machine Learning Services that can help your candy factory become smarter and more efficient.

Amazon Lex

First off, we have Amazon Lex, a Natural Language Chatbots and Voice Application which is like having a friendly wizard that can enchant your applications with the power of natural conversation. With Lex, you can build chatbots and voice-powered applications that can understand and respond to customer requests using the same technology that powers Amazon Alexa. It’s like having a team of customer service elves that can answer questions and take orders 24/7

• ASR and NLU: Lex uses automatic speech recognition (ASR) and natural language understanding (NLU) to convert customer speech or text into structured data that your application can process.
• Custom Intents and Slot Types: You can define custom intents and slot types to map customer requests to specific actions or parameters, like ordering a specific type of candy or asking for the status of their delivery.
• Integration with AWS Services: Lex integrates seamlessly with other AWS services, so you can build complete conversational solutions that scale to millions of users.

Amazon Translate

And last but not least of our magical and AI-powered Machine Learning-Based Translation services is Amazon Translate, the most magical service that can break down language barriers and help your candy factory reach customers worldwide. With Translate, you can build applications that automatically translate text from one language to another using advanced machine learning techniques. It’s like having a team of polyglot translators who can localize your candy packaging, marketing materials, and customer support conversations in real time.

• Multilingual Support with Language Detection: Amazon Translate supports a wide variety of languages, from Spanish and French to Chinese and Arabic, and it can even detect the source language automatically.
• Application Integration: You can use it to build a variety of applications, like a website that dynamically translates product descriptions and reviews based on customer location or a customer support system that automatically routes conversations to agents who speak the same language as the customer.
• Scalability: Translate integrates seamlessly with other AWS services, so you can build complete multilingual solutions that scale to millions of users.

Conclusion

There you have it, a comprehensive overview of the top 20 AWS services and a crash course for beginners. This information will equip you with the knowledge to embark on your cloud journey and harness the power of AWS to build innovative and scalable applications.

Remember, AWS is a vast ecosystem, and these are just a few of the many services available. As you delve deeper into the platform, you’ll discover even more tools and possibilities to enhance your projects.

So, whether you’re a seasoned developer or just starting out, AWS offers a wealth of opportunities to bring your ideas to life. Start exploring, experiment with different services, and let your creativity soar. The cloud is yours to conquer!

I hope this crash course has been informative and inspiring. If you have any questions or would like to learn more about specific AWS services, feel free to leave a comment below. Happy cloud computing!

roosho Senior Engineer (Technical Services)

I am Rakib Raihan RooSho, Jack of all IT Trades. You got it right. Good for nothing. I try a lot of things and fail more than that. That's how I learn. Whenever I succeed, I note that in my cookbook. Eventually, that became my blog. 

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