Amazon Web Services (AWS) is Amazon’s cloud computing platform, providing infrastructure and platform services (compute, storage, databases, networking, security, AI, etc.).
What it’s used for
- Hosting websites and APIs (e.g., EC2, ECS, Lambda).
- File storage and backups (e.g., S3).
- Managed databases (e.g., RDS, DynamoDB).
- Networking/CDN/DNS (e.g., VPC, CloudFront, Route 53).
Where you use it
- AWS Console (web): manage resources.
- CLI/SDKs: automation and deployments.
Key concepts
- Region and Availability Zones: many “issues” are just the wrong region.
- IAM permissions: many errors are missing permissions.
- Service quotas: limits can block resource creation.
Common issues
- Console won’t load / slow: temporary incidents, extensions, corporate network blocks.
- Auth issues (sign‑in/MFA): expired session, MFA, org policies.
- Resource creation fails: quotas, region mismatch, IAM permissions.
Status and incidents
- For official incident checks, use the AWS Health Dashboard.