Introduction to AWS

Learn the basics of cloud computing and why AWS is the industry leader

What is Cloud Computing?

Cloud computing is like renting a computer instead of buying one. Instead of purchasing expensive servers and maintaining them yourself, you pay a company (like Amazon) to use their computers over the internet.

Simple Analogy

Think of it like electricity. You dont build your own power plant - you just plug into the grid and pay for what you use. Cloud computing works the same way with servers.

What is AWS?

Amazon Web Services (AWS) is the worlds largest cloud platform, offering over 200 services. It powers millions of websites and applications, from startups to enterprises like Netflix, Airbnb, and NASA.

AWS Service Categories

Compute
Run applications on virtual servers (EC2, Fargate, Lambda)
Storage
Store files and data (S3, EBS, RDS)
Networking
Connect and distribute traffic (VPC, ALB, Route 53)
Security
Protect your applications (IAM, Cognito, Secrets Manager)
Serverless
Run code without managing servers (Lambda, Fargate)
Monitoring
Track and debug your apps (CloudWatch, X-Ray)

Why Use AWS?

  • Pay-as-you-go: Only pay for what you use, no upfront costs
  • Scalability: Automatically handle traffic spikes
  • Global reach: Deploy to 30+ regions worldwide
  • Security: Enterprise-grade security built-in
  • Reliability: 99.99% uptime SLAs

💰 Understanding AWS Costs

AWS offers a generous Free Tier for learning, but some services can incur costs. Before creating any resources, read our Costs & Cleanup Guide to understand billing, set up alerts, and learn how to delete resources when done.

Deployment Options

There are multiple ways to deploy to AWS. Choose based on your experience level:

AWS Copilot (Recommended for Beginners)

AWS Copilot is a CLI tool that simplifies ECS deployment. It handles all the infrastructure setup automatically, making it perfect for teams new to AWS.

  • One command to deploy: copilot deploy
  • Automatic VPC, ALB, and ECS setup
  • Built-in CI/CD pipeline support
  • Easy environment management (dev, staging, prod)

What We'll Learn

In this guide, we'll cover everything you need to deploy to AWS:

  1. AWS Account Setup - Create IAM user and security keys
  2. AWS CLI - Install and configure the command-line interface
  3. Docker - Install Docker for container builds
  4. Environment Config - Set up environment variables

Prerequisite Knowledge

This guide assumes you know basic programming concepts and have used a command-line terminal before. No prior AWS knowledge is required!
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