A modular, beginner-to-advanced AWS reference guide covering all major services with theory, hands-on steps, architecture diagrams, interview questions, and best practices.
Cloud Computing is the delivery of computing services — servers, storage, databases, networking, software, and analytics — over the internet ("the cloud") to offer faster innovation, flexible resources, and economies of scale.
Instead of owning and maintaining physical data centers and servers, you rent compute power, storage, and other services from a cloud provider and pay only for what you use.
| Before Cloud (On-Premise) | After Cloud (AWS) |
|---|---|
| Buy physical servers | Rent virtual servers |
| Weeks to provision | Minutes to launch |
| Pay upfront (CapEx) | Pay as you go (OpEx) |
| Fixed capacity | Scale up/down instantly |
| You manage hardware | AWS manages hardware |
| Single location | Global in minutes |
| High maintenance cost | No maintenance overhead |
| Type | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Public Cloud | Resources shared, owned by provider | AWS, Azure, GCP |
| Private Cloud | Dedicated to one organization | On-premise VMware |
| Hybrid Cloud | Mix of public + private | DB on-prem, app on AWS |
| Multi-Cloud | Using multiple cloud providers | AWS + GCP together |
IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service)
→ You get: VMs, storage, networking
→ You manage: OS, runtime, apps, data
→ AWS Example: EC2, EBS, VPC
→ Like: Renting an empty office space
PaaS (Platform as a Service)
→ You get: Runtime, OS, infrastructure
→ You manage: Only your application and data
→ AWS Example: Elastic Beanstalk, RDS, Lambda
→ Like: Renting a furnished office
SaaS (Software as a Service)
→ You get: Ready-to-use software
→ You manage: Nothing (just use it)
→ AWS Example: WorkMail, Chime, Gmail
→ Like: Using Gmail — just log in and use
- Trade CapEx for OpEx — No upfront hardware investment; pay only when you consume
- Massive economies of scale — AWS buys at huge volume → lower cost passed to you
- Stop guessing capacity — Scale instantly up/down with actual demand
- Increase speed and agility — Deploy globally in minutes, not weeks
- Stop spending on data centers — Focus on your business, not server maintenance
- Go global in minutes — One-click deploy to any AWS region worldwide
Amazon Web Services (AWS) is the world's most comprehensive and broadly adopted cloud platform, offering over 200 fully featured services from data centers globally. AWS is owned by Amazon and launched in 2006.
AWS lets individuals, companies, and governments rent computing resources on demand — from a single virtual machine to powering AI-driven global applications.
| Metric | Value |
|---|---|
| Market Share | ~31% (largest cloud provider) |
| Global Regions | 33 regions worldwide |
| Availability Zones | 105+ AZs |
| Edge Locations | 400+ (CloudFront CDN) |
| Services | 200+ |
| Notable Customers | Netflix, NASA, Airbnb, Samsung, Swiggy |
| Launched | March 2006 |
AWS Global Infrastructure
│
├── Regions (33 worldwide)
│ ├── A geographic area (e.g., ap-south-1 = Mumbai)
│ ├── Completely independent — isolated from other regions
│ └── Choose based on: latency, compliance, cost
│
├── Availability Zones / AZ (105+)
│ ├── One or more physical data centers in a region
│ ├── Connected via low-latency private fiber
│ ├── e.g., ap-south-1a, ap-south-1b, ap-south-1c
│ └── Deploy across AZs for High Availability (HA)
│
├── Edge Locations (400+)
│ ├── Used by CloudFront CDN for content delivery
│ └── Cache content close to end users globally
│
└── Local Zones
├── Extensions of AWS regions to specific metro cities
└── For ultra-low latency apps (gaming, AR/VR)
| Category | Key Services |
|---|---|
| Compute | EC2, Lambda, ECS, EKS, Fargate |
| Storage | S3, EBS, EFS, Glacier |
| Database | RDS, Aurora, DynamoDB, ElastiCache |
| Networking | VPC, Route 53, CloudFront, ALB, NLB |
| Security | IAM, KMS, Shield, WAF, Cognito |
| Monitoring | CloudWatch, CloudTrail, X-Ray |
| AI / ML | SageMaker, Rekognition, Comprehend, Bedrock |
| DevOps | CodePipeline, CodeBuild, CodeDeploy |
| Messaging | SQS, SNS, EventBridge |
| Analytics | Athena, Redshift, Glue, Kinesis |
Pay-as-you-go → Pay only for what you use, no upfront cost
Save when you commit → Reserve 1–3 years → up to 72% savings
Pay less with volume → More usage = lower per-unit price
Free Tier → Many services free for 12 months (some forever)
| Feature | AWS | Azure | GCP |
|---|---|---|---|
| Market Share | ~31% | ~25% | ~11% |
| Launched | 2006 | 2010 | 2011 |
| Strengths | Most mature, broadest services | Microsoft/enterprise integration | Data, AI/ML |
| Compute | EC2 | Virtual Machines | Compute Engine |
| Object Storage | S3 | Blob Storage | Cloud Storage |
| Kubernetes | EKS | AKS | GKE |
| Serverless | Lambda | Azure Functions | Cloud Functions |
| Best For | General cloud workloads | Windows/.NET shops | Big data & ML |
AWS Responsible For (Security OF the Cloud):
├── Physical hardware & data centers
├── Global network infrastructure
├── Hypervisor / virtualization layer
└── Managed service software (RDS engine, Lambda runtime)
Customer Responsible For (Security IN the Cloud):
├── Operating system patching (EC2)
├── Application security & code
├── IAM users, roles, and policies
├── Data encryption (at rest & in transit)
├── Network configuration (Security Groups, NACLs)
└── Firewall rules and access controls
aws-detailed/
├── README.md ← You are here
├── services/
│ ├── 01_EC2.md ← Elastic Compute Cloud
│ ├── 02_S3.md ← Simple Storage Service
│ ├── 03_VPC.md ← Virtual Private Cloud + Subnets, IGW, NAT, Route Tables
│ ├── 04_IAM.md ← Identity & Access Management
│ ├── 05_EFS.md ← Elastic File System
│ ├── 06_EBS_Volumes.md ← Elastic Block Store + Snapshots
│ ├── 07_ALB.md ← Application Load Balancer
│ ├── 08_Auto_Scaling.md ← Auto Scaling Groups
│ ├── 09_CloudWatch.md ← CloudWatch + Alarms + Metrics + Logs
│ ├── 10_Route53.md ← DNS + Traffic Policies
│ ├── 11_CloudFront.md ← CDN + Distribution
│ ├── 12_AMI.md ← Amazon Machine Images
│ ├── 13_Peering_Connection.md ← VPC Peering
│ ├── 14_ENI_NIC.md ← Elastic Network Interface
│ └── 15_Mini_Project_EC2.md ← EC2 + ALB Mini Project
├── interview/
│ └── AWS_Interview_Guide.md ← 200+ Interview Questions (All Levels)
└── diagrams/
└── AWS_Architecture_Overview.md ← ASCII Architecture Diagrams
| # | Service | Category | File |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | EC2 | Compute | 01_EC2.md |
| 2 | S3 | Storage | 02_S3.md |
| 3 | VPC | Networking | 03_VPC.md |
| 4 | IAM | Security | 04_IAM.md |
| 5 | EFS | Storage | 05_EFS.md |
| 6 | EBS + Snapshots | Storage | 06_EBS_Volumes.md |
| 7 | ALB | Networking | 07_ALB.md |
| 8 | Auto Scaling | Compute | 08_Auto_Scaling.md |
| 9 | CloudWatch | Monitoring | 09_CloudWatch.md |
| 10 | Route 53 | DNS | 10_Route53.md |
| 11 | CloudFront | CDN | 11_CloudFront.md |
| 12 | AMI | Compute | 12_AMI.md |
| 13 | VPC Peering | Networking | 13_Peering_Connection.md |
| 14 | ENI / NIC | Networking | 14_ENI_NIC.md |
| 15 | Mini Project | Project | 15_Mini_Project_EC2.md |
| 16 | Lambda | Serverless | 16_Lambda.md |
| 17 | EKS | Containers | 17_EKS.md |
| 18 | RDS | Database | 18_RDS.md |
| 19 | Route Tables + IGW + NAT | Networking | 19_Route_Tables_IGW_NAT.md |
- Beginners → Start with EC2 → S3 → IAM → VPC
- Intermediate → EFS, EBS, ALB, Auto Scaling, CloudWatch
- Advanced → Route53, CloudFront, VPC Peering, Architecture
- Interview Prep → AWS Interview Guide
AWS Global Infrastructure
├── Regions (e.g., us-east-1, ap-south-1)
│ └── Availability Zones (AZ) (e.g., ap-south-1a, ap-south-1b)
│ └── Data Centers
├── Edge Locations (CloudFront CDN)
└── Local Zones
Note: Images/screenshots from lab sessions are in the
/images/folder (add your own screenshots from AWS Console practice).
Last Updated: May 2026 | Maintained for learning purposes