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Unit 3: Developing Cloud Services

So, let’s understand about who is offering what in terms of cloud service development. It is an Notes
interesting mix of companies and services.

3.4.1 Amazon

Amazon is one of the largest retailers on the Internet. It is amongst the primary providers of
cloud development services. Amazon Web Services are a set of services that provide programmatic
access to Amazon.com’s ready-to-use computing infrastructure.
The strong computing platform that was built and refined over the years by Amazon is now
available to anyone who has access to the Internet. Amazon provides several Web services. A
few basic building-block services that fulfill some of the core needs of most systems are storage,
computing, messaging, and datasets.
Storage: We all need storage for files, documents, user downloads, or backups. Store anything
your application needs in Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3) and take advantage of accessible,
reliable, highly available low-cost storage.
Computing: Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) provides the ability to scale your computing
resources up or down based on demand and makes provisioning new server instances very
easy.
Messaging: Decouple your application components by using the unlimited reliable messaging
provided by Amazon Simple Queue Service (SQS).

Datasets: Amazon SimpleDB (SDB) provides scalable, indexed, zero-maintenance storage, along
with processing and querying for datasets.
You can mix and match the services as needed. These services are designed to work well with
each other. Because you are running inside the Amazon environment, all communication among
these services is usually fast.
You can create complex and diverse applications on top of the reliable, cost-effective building-
block services provided by Amazon. The Web services themselves live in a cloud outside your
environment and are readily available.
Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) is a central part of Amazon.com’s cloud
computing platform, Amazon Web Services (AWS). Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud is a web
service that provides resizable compute capacity in the cloud. It is designed to make web-scale
computing easier for developers. To use the EC2, a subscriber creates an Amazon Machine
Image (AMI) containing the operating system, application programs and configuration settings.
Then the AMI is uploaded to the Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) and registered
with Amazon EC2, creating a so-called AMI identifier (AMI ID). Once this has been done, the
subscriber can demand essential machines on an as-needed basis. Capacity can be increased or
decreased in real time from as few as one to more than 1000 virtual machines simultaneously.
Billing takes place according to the computing and network resources consumed.

Entrepreneurs can build scalable and reliable applications by tapping into this virtual
infrastructure, which costs far less than the traditional application-hosting platforms that require
huge server farms for servicing fluctuations and spikes in demand.

There are two levels of support available for users of Amazon Web Services:
Free forum-based support from the Amazon staff who monitor the Amazon forums

Paid support packages that provide one-on-one and phone support and are a more discreet
way to request help

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