Introduction to AWS for Beginners

📘 Chapter 2: Core AWS Services You Should Know

🔍 Overview

Amazon Web Services (AWS) provides over 200 fully featured services for cloud computing, networking, security, storage, AI/ML, and beyond. However, for beginners, there are a few core services that form the foundation of most applications. Understanding and using these services will allow you to build, deploy, and manage real-world cloud solutions.

In this chapter, we will cover the following key services:

• EC2 – Elastic Compute Cloud (virtual servers)
• S3 – Simple Storage Service (object storage)
• RDS – Relational Database Service
• Lambda – Serverless computing
• IAM – Identity and Access Management
• CloudFront – Content Delivery Network
• VPC – Virtual Private Cloud (networking)
• CloudWatch – Monitoring and logging

🖥️ 1. EC2 (Elastic Compute Cloud)

💡 What it is:

EC2 allows you to launch virtual machines (instances) in the cloud. You can install any operating system, configure your software, and scale resources as needed.

🔧 Key Features:

• Choice of instance types (general-purpose, memory-optimized, compute-optimized)
• Auto-scaling and load balancing
• Pay-per-use pricing (by second or hour)
• SSH access to Linux servers

✅ Example: Launching EC2 via CLI

bash

aws ec2 run-instances \

  --image-id ami-0c02fb55956c7d316 \

  --instance-type t2.micro \

  --key-name MyKeyPair \

  --security-groups MySecurityGroup

🗃️ 2. S3 (Simple Storage Service)

💡 What it is:

S3 is object storage for the internet. You can store and retrieve any amount of data from anywhere.

🔧 Key Features:

• Unlimited storage with 99.999999999% (11 9s) durability
• Versioning and lifecycle rules
• Supports static website hosting
• S3 Buckets are globally unique

✅ Example: Upload File to S3 via CLI

bash

aws s3 cp my-image.jpg s3://my-first-bucket/

🧮 3. RDS (Relational Database Service)

💡 What it is:

RDS is a managed service for relational databases like MySQL, PostgreSQL, Oracle, and SQL Server.

🔧 Key Features:

• Automated backups and patching
• Easy to scale (vertical and horizontal)
• Multi-AZ deployment for high availability
• Integrated monitoring with CloudWatch

✅ Example: Create RDS Instance (MySQL) via CLI

bash

aws rds create-db-instance \

    --db-instance-identifier mydb \

    --db-instance-class db.t2.micro \

    --engine mysql \

    --allocated-storage 20 \

    --master-username admin \

    --master-user-password mypassword

⚡ 4. Lambda (Serverless Computing)

💡 What it is:

AWS Lambda lets you run code without provisioning servers. You write your function, upload it, and AWS handles everything else.

🔧 Key Features:

• Event-driven (S3 upload, API Gateway, DynamoDB, etc.)
• Supports Node.js, Python, Java, Go, Ruby, .NET
• 1M free requests/month in Free Tier
• Auto-scales by default

✅ Example: Python Lambda Function

python

def lambda_handler(event, context):

    return {

        'statusCode': 200,

        'body': 'Hello from Lambda!'

    }

🔐 5. IAM (Identity and Access Management)

💡 What it is:

IAM controls access to AWS services and resources. You can create users, groups, roles, and policies.

🔧 Key Features:

• Role-based access control
• MFA support for added security
• Fine-grained permissions (JSON policies)
• Shared access via roles

✅ Example: Create New IAM User via CLI

bash

aws iam create-user --user-name mynewuser

🌍 6. CloudFront (Content Delivery Network)

💡 What it is:

CloudFront speeds up delivery of static/dynamic content via a global network of edge locations.

🔧 Key Features:

• Integrated with S3, EC2, and Load Balancers
• HTTPS, custom domains, and WAF support
• Caching and compression options
• DDoS protection built-in

✅ Example Use Case:

Host images on S3, deliver globally via CloudFront for faster loading.

🌐 7. VPC (Virtual Private Cloud)

💡 What it is:

VPC allows you to launch AWS resources in an isolated virtual network that you define.

🔧 Key Features:

• Subnets (public/private)
• Route tables, Internet Gateway, NAT Gateway
• Network ACLs and Security Groups
• Peering and VPN options

📈 8. CloudWatch (Monitoring & Logging)

💡 What it is:

CloudWatch collects and visualizes metrics, logs, and events from AWS resources and applications.

🔧 Key Features:

• Real-time dashboards
• Custom metric and log ingestion
• Set alarms and auto-scaling triggers
• Integrated with EC2, Lambda, RDS, and more

✅ Example: View EC2 Metrics

bash

aws cloudwatch get-metric-statistics \

  --namespace AWS/EC2 \

  --metric-name CPUUtilization \

  --dimensions Name=InstanceId,Value=i-1234567890abcdef0 \

  --start-time 2024-01-01T00:00:00Z \

  --end-time 2024-01-02T00:00:00Z \

  --period 3600 \

  --statistics Average

🧠 Summary Table – Core AWS Services

🏁 Final Thoughts

With a solid understanding of these core AWS services, you're now equipped to build scalable, secure, and cost-effective applications in the cloud. These services form the backbone of cloud architecture on AWS and are widely used in enterprise, startup, and hobby projects.