AWS Service Quick Reference

Virtual servers in the cloud. Choose instance type (CPU, RAM, GPU). Pay per second.

"A physical server you rent"

Run code without managing servers. Triggered by events. Pay per invocation (first 1M free).

"A vending machine — insert request, get result, machine disappears"

Managed container orchestration for Docker containers. Integrates with Fargate (serverless) or EC2.

"A container fleet manager"

Managed Kubernetes service. AWS handles the control plane; you manage worker nodes (or use Fargate).

"Managed Kubernetes without the control plane headache"

Serverless compute for ECS and EKS. No EC2 instances to manage — just define CPU and RAM.

PaaS — deploy web apps without managing infrastructure. AWS handles provisioning, load balancing, scaling.

"Heroku on AWS. You deploy code; AWS handles everything else."

Managed batch computing for large-scale parallel workloads. Automatically provisions EC2/Spot instances.

"A job queue that spins up EC2s as needed"

Simple VPS for small workloads with predictable pricing. Best for websites, small apps, dev environments.

"EC2 with training wheels — simpler console, fixed price"

Object storage. Store any file up to 5TB. Unlimited total storage. 11 9s of durability.

"An infinite filing cabinet on the internet"

Block storage volumes for EC2. Like a virtual hard drive. Single AZ, must be in same AZ as EC2.

"An SSD/HDD attached to your virtual server"

Managed NFS file system. Shared across multiple EC2 instances in multiple AZs. Elastic — grows automatically.

"A shared network drive multiple servers can mount simultaneously"

Low-cost archival storage. Retrieval times from minutes (Flexible) to hours (Deep Archive).

Bridge between on-premises and AWS storage. File Gateway (NFS/SMB), Volume Gateway (iSCSI), Tape Gateway.

Fully managed third-party file systems: FSx for Windows (SMB/NTFS) and FSx for Lustre (HPC).

Managed relational database service. Supports MySQL, PostgreSQL, MariaDB, Oracle, SQL Server, Aurora.

"A database server you don't have to patch"

AWS-built relational DB. MySQL and PostgreSQL compatible. 5x faster than MySQL, 3x than PostgreSQL.

Fully managed NoSQL key-value and document database. Single-digit millisecond performance at any scale.

"A scalable hash table on steroids"

Managed in-memory caching: Redis or Memcached. Reduces DB load, sub-millisecond latency.

Cloud data warehouse. Petabyte-scale analytics. Columnar storage. Integrates with S3 via Redshift Spectrum.

"A giant analytics database optimised for queries, not transactions"

MongoDB-compatible managed document database. Stores JSON-like documents.

Managed graph database. Supports Gremlin and SPARQL. Used for social networks, fraud detection, knowledge graphs.

Virtual Private Cloud — isolated network in AWS. Define CIDR, subnets, route tables, internet gateways.

"Your own private data centre network in the cloud"

Managed DNS service. Domain registration, DNS routing, health checks. Supports all routing policies.

CDN (Content Delivery Network). Caches content at 400+ edge locations worldwide. Reduces latency.

"A global cache network that serves content from the closest location to the user"

Create and manage REST, HTTP, and WebSocket APIs. Integrates with Lambda, EC2, and other services.

Elastic Load Balancer. Three types: ALB (Layer 7, HTTP), NLB (Layer 4, TCP/UDP), CLB (legacy).

Dedicated private network connection from on-premises to AWS. Bypasses public internet.

IPsec VPN over the internet to connect on-premises to VPC. Faster setup than Direct Connect but less reliable.

Expose services to other VPCs or accounts privately without traffic going over the internet.

Identity and Access Management. Users, groups, roles, policies. The foundation of AWS security.

"The key management system for your AWS house"

Key Management Service. Create and manage cryptographic keys for encryption. FIPS 140-2 validated HSMs.

Store and auto-rotate secrets (DB passwords, API keys). Integrates with RDS, Redshift, DocumentDB.

Web Application Firewall. Filters HTTP/S traffic. Protects against SQLi, XSS, bad bots. Works with CloudFront/ALB.

DDoS protection. Shield Standard (free, automatic) protects all AWS customers. Shield Advanced adds 24/7 DRT support.

Threat detection using ML and threat intelligence. Analyses CloudTrail, VPC Flow Logs, and DNS logs.

Automated vulnerability assessment for EC2 and container images. Checks for CVEs and network exposure.

Uses ML to discover and protect sensitive data (PII, credentials) in S3.

Metrics, logs, alarms, and dashboards. Central monitoring for all AWS services.

Records all API calls to your AWS account. Who did what, when, from where. Enabled by default (90-day history).

Records resource configuration history and evaluates compliance against rules.

Automated best-practice checks: cost optimisation, security, reliability, performance, service limits.

Operational hub for AWS resources. Run Command, Patch Manager, Parameter Store, Session Manager.

Simple Queue Service. Managed message queue. Decouple application components. Standard (at-least-once) or FIFO.

"A to-do list that producers add to and consumers process"

Simple Notification Service. Pub/Sub messaging. Push notifications to SQS, Lambda, HTTP, email, SMS.

"A megaphone that broadcasts to all subscribers"

Serverless event bus. Route events between AWS services, custom apps, and SaaS apps.

Visual workflow service. Orchestrate Lambda functions, ECS tasks, and other services into state machines.

End-to-end ML platform. Build, train, and deploy ML models. Includes AutoML, notebooks, and model registry.

Image and video analysis. Object detection, face recognition, text in images, content moderation.

Natural language processing (NLP). Sentiment analysis, entity recognition, key phrase extraction.

Extracts text and structured data from scanned documents, PDFs, and images.

Fully managed service to build and scale generative AI applications using foundation models from AWS and partners.