AWS Technology

Core services and building blocks

Core Compute Services

Amazon EC2

  • Virtual servers in the cloud
  • Full control over OS and software
  • Billed by the second
  • Requires patching and maintenance by customer

Use when:

  • You need OS-level access
  • You want maximum control

AWS Lambda

  • Serverless compute
  • Run code in response to events
  • No servers to manage
  • Charged per execution and runtime

Use when:

  • Event-driven workloads
  • Short-lived tasks
  • Automatic scaling is needed

Elastic Load Balancing (ELB)

  • Distributes traffic across targets
  • Improves availability and fault tolerance

Types:

  • Application Load Balancer (HTTP/HTTPS)
  • Network Load Balancer (TCP/UDP)
  • Gateway Load Balancer

Storage Services

Amazon S3

  • Object storage
  • Virtually unlimited scalability
  • Highly durable (99.999999999%)
  • Charged per GB/month

Use cases:

  • Backups
  • Static websites
  • Media storage

Amazon EBS

  • Block storage for EC2
  • Attached to one instance at a time
  • Used for OS and databases

Amazon EFS

  • Managed file system
  • Shared storage for multiple EC2 instances
  • Automatically scales

Database Services

Amazon RDS

  • Managed relational databases
  • Handles backups, patching, and scaling
  • Supports MySQL, PostgreSQL, Oracle, SQL Server

Amazon DynamoDB

  • Fully managed NoSQL key-value database
  • Single-digit millisecond latency
  • Serverless and auto-scaling

Use when:

  • High scale
  • Low latency
  • No schema

Amazon Aurora

  • AWS-optimized relational database
  • Compatible with MySQL and PostgreSQL
  • Higher performance than standard RDS

Networking

Amazon VPC

  • Isolated virtual network
  • Control IP ranges, subnets, routing

Amazon Route 53

  • Managed DNS service
  • Highly available and scalable
  • Supports health checks and routing policies

Amazon CloudFront

  • Content Delivery Network (CDN)
  • Uses edge locations
  • Reduces latency globally

Monitoring & Management

Amazon CloudWatch

  • Metrics, logs, and alarms
  • Monitor performance and health
  • Trigger alerts and automation

AWS Auto Scaling

  • Automatically adjust capacity
  • Works with EC2, ECS, DynamoDB
  • Improves availability and reduces cost

Application Integration

Amazon SQS

  • Message queue service
  • Decouples application components
  • Pull-based

Amazon SNS

  • Pub/Sub messaging
  • Push-based notifications
  • Supports email, SMS, HTTP, Lambda

Analytics & Other Core Services

Amazon Athena

  • Serverless SQL queries on S3
  • Pay per query

AWS Elastic Beanstalk

  • Platform as a Service (PaaS)
  • Deploy apps without managing infrastructure

Exam Pattern Cheats

If the question mentions:

  • No servers to manage → Lambda
  • Object storage → S3
  • Relational database → RDS / Aurora
  • NoSQL + scale → DynamoDB
  • Global content delivery → CloudFront
  • Decoupling apps → SQS / SNS
  • Monitoring & alerts → CloudWatch
  • Automatic scaling → Auto Scaling

Final Reality Check

  • Choose managed services when possible
  • Serverless = less ops + automatic scaling
  • If it sounds simple and scalable, it’s probably the right answer
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