What is AWS?
AWS (Amazon Web Services) is Amazon’s cloud computing platform. It is an on-demand collection of more than 200 services — compute, storage, databases, networking and AI — that businesses rent over the internet and pay for only as they use. Instead of buying and running physical servers, you scale infrastructure up or down in minutes.
If you have ever streamed Netflix, booked an Airbnb or opened a banking app, there is a good chance Amazon Web Services quietly powered part of that experience. This guide explains, in plain language, what AWS is, what its core services do, why companies choose it, how it compares to other clouds, and what it costs.
200+
fully featured services across compute, storage, data and AI
~1/3
of the global cloud market runs on AWS
Pay-as-you-go
you pay only for what you actually use
2006
the year AWS launched and defined modern cloud
AWS full form and what “AWS Amazon” means
The AWS full form is Amazon Web Services. You will see it written three ways that all mean the same thing: the acronym AWS, the full Amazon Web Services, or informally as AWS Amazon. People say “AWS Amazon” simply because it is Amazon’s cloud arm, and there is no separate product behind the different names.
AWS began inside Amazon in 2006. The retail side had built enormous, reliable infrastructure to run its own store, and it started renting that same capability to other companies. It grew from a side project into Amazon’s profit engine, and today it is the reference point every other cloud is measured against.
The one-sentence version
AWS is renting Amazon’s data centres by the hour, through a menu of building blocks you assemble into whatever application, website or system you need — without ever owning the hardware.
How does AWS work?
At its heart, AWS is cloud computing: delivering IT resources over the internet on demand. Rather than buying a server, installing it in an office and hoping you sized it correctly, you request the exact resources you need from AWS and they are running seconds later. When demand drops, you scale back down and stop paying for the surplus.
Three ideas make this work:
- On-demand. You provision servers, storage or databases the moment you need them, through a console or code, with no procurement cycle.
- Pay-as-you-go. There is no large upfront hardware bill. You pay for compute by the second or hour and for storage by the gigabyte, so cost tracks real usage.
- Global by default. AWS runs data centres in regions across the world, so you can host your application close to your users for speed and resilience.
This is the same shift covered in our guide to IaaS vs PaaS vs SaaS: AWS is the clearest large-scale example of infrastructure-as-a-service, with higher-level managed services layered on top.
The core AWS services in plain language
AWS has over 200 services, which is genuinely overwhelming at first. In practice, most projects lean on a handful of building blocks that fall into four categories. Here is what each one actually does.
The processing power that runs your code. Amazon EC2 gives you virtual servers you control; AWS Lambda runs code on demand with no server to manage at all.
Where your files and data live. Amazon S3 stores images, backups and documents cheaply and durably, and serves them to any application or website.
Managed places to store structured data. Amazon RDS runs traditional SQL databases; DynamoDB is a fast NoSQL option — AWS handles the upkeep for both.
The plumbing that connects everything securely. A Virtual Private Cloud isolates your resources, while CloudFront delivers content fast to users worldwide.
Compute: the engine room
Compute is the muscle. Amazon EC2 (Elastic Compute Cloud) hands you virtual servers you can size, start and stop at will, the closest cloud equivalent to a physical machine. AWS Lambda goes further: you upload a function, it runs only when triggered, and you pay per execution rather than for an always-on server. For a spiky workload, that difference alone can slash the bill.
Storage: keep everything, cheaply
Amazon S3 (Simple Storage Service) is the workhorse of AWS. It stores effectively unlimited files with very high durability, which is why so much of the web’s images, video and backups sit on it. You pay per gigabyte, and you can serve those files directly to your app or website.
Databases: managed, not manual
Running a database yourself means patching, backups and scaling headaches. AWS takes that on. Amazon RDS manages standard SQL engines like PostgreSQL and MySQL, while DynamoDB offers a NoSQL database built for huge scale and low latency. If you are weighing hosted databases in general, our explainer on what Firebase is covers a friendlier, developer-first alternative for smaller apps.
Networking and AI: the connective tissue
A Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) gives your resources a private, secured network, and Amazon CloudFront is a content delivery network that caches your site near users for speed. On top of all this, AWS layers AI and machine-learning services such as Amazon SageMaker for building models and Amazon Bedrock for generative-AI applications.
Why do businesses use AWS?
The appeal comes down to trading fixed costs and guesswork for flexibility. You stop buying capacity you might need and start paying for capacity you actually use.
No server room, no large hardware purchase. Pay-as-you-go pricing turns a big upfront investment into a predictable operating cost that tracks usage.
Handle a traffic spike, a product launch or seasonal demand by scaling instantly, then scale back down. No capacity planning gamble.
Deploy across a worldwide network of data centres in minutes, close to your customers, with built-in redundancy for resilience.
For a startup, this means launching without a capital-heavy IT budget. For an established company, it means retiring ageing server rooms and moving faster. In both cases the underlying win is the same: infrastructure stops being a constraint you plan around and becomes something you adjust as the business changes.
AWS vs other clouds
AWS is the largest cloud provider, but it is not the only one. Its two main rivals are Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud Platform (GCP). The differences are real but often overstated for a typical business.
| Provider | Best known for | Typical fit |
|---|---|---|
| AWS (Amazon Web Services) | The broadest service catalogue and largest market share | Teams that want maximum choice and a mature ecosystem |
| Microsoft Azure | Deep integration with Windows, Microsoft 365 and enterprise IT | Organisations already invested in Microsoft tooling |
| Google Cloud | Strengths in data, analytics and machine learning | Data-heavy and AI-first products |
For most projects, the honest answer is that all three can do the job. AWS earns its default status through breadth and maturity: whatever you want to build, there is almost certainly a service for it and a large community that has done it before. The right choice depends more on your existing tools and team skills than on any single feature.
What does AWS cost?
There is no single price for AWS, because you assemble it from parts. Cost depends on which services you use, how much compute and storage you consume, and how much data moves in and out. The model is pay-as-you-go: you are billed for actual usage rather than a flat subscription.
The cost you have to watch
The trap is not the sticker price of any one service — it is unmonitored usage. A forgotten server, an oversized database or heavy data transfer can quietly inflate a bill. Sound cloud architecture, budgets and alerts matter as much as the raw rates.
A few anchors help:
- Free Tier. AWS offers a free tier so you can experiment with many services at no cost within set limits — useful for learning and prototypes.
- Pay for usage. Compute is billed by the second or hour, storage by the gigabyte, so a small app costs little and scales with success.
- Commitment discounts. For steady, predictable workloads, options like Savings Plans and Reserved Instances cut the rate substantially in exchange for a usage commitment.
The practical takeaway: AWS can be very economical or surprisingly expensive, and the difference is almost always architecture and governance, not the platform itself.
AWS and building custom software
For most companies, the real question isn’t “should we learn AWS.” It’s “who architects and runs this properly, so it stays fast, secure and cost-controlled.” That is where a good build partner earns its keep. Good cloud architecture is the difference between infrastructure that scales cleanly and a bill that creeps.
At Viralistic we architect and deploy cloud-hosted software on infrastructure like AWS, with performance, security and sensible cost from the first design decision. If you are planning a product or platform, our guides to custom website development and working with a software development company in the Netherlands show how the cloud layer fits into the wider build.
Planning something that needs the cloud?
Book a free orientation call. We will map what your product needs, recommend the right cloud setup, and tell you honestly what it takes to build and run it well.
Frequently asked questions
What exactly is AWS used for?
AWS is used to run almost anything that would otherwise need your own servers: websites and web apps, mobile app backends, data storage and backups, databases, analytics, and AI or machine-learning workloads. Businesses use Amazon Web Services to host software, handle traffic spikes and store data without owning physical hardware.
What is AWS in simple terms?
In simple terms, AWS is renting computing power and storage from Amazon over the internet, by the hour, instead of buying and maintaining your own machines. You pick the building blocks you need, pay only for what you use, and scale up or down whenever demand changes.
What does AWS stand for?
AWS stands for Amazon Web Services. The AWS full form is Amazon Web Services, and it is Amazon’s cloud computing division, which is why you will also hear people call it AWS Amazon.
Who is AWS’s biggest competitor?
AWS’s biggest competitor is Microsoft Azure, followed by Google Cloud Platform. AWS holds the largest share of the cloud market, but Azure is strong in organisations already using Microsoft tools, and Google Cloud stands out for data and machine learning.
Did Jeff Bezos create AWS?
AWS launched in 2006 while Jeff Bezos was Amazon’s CEO, but it was built and led by a team, with Andy Jassy driving it and later becoming its CEO. Bezos championed the idea; the platform itself was the work of many Amazon engineers.
Does Netflix use AWS?
Yes. Netflix is one of the best-known AWS customers and runs much of its streaming platform on Amazon Web Services, which is a frequently cited example of AWS operating at massive global scale.
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From first architecture sketch to a live, cost-controlled system on AWS, Viralistic designs and deploys cloud-hosted software that scales. Book a free call.
