What is Cloud Computing and AWS?

With many companies switching to cloud services and implementing cloud infrastructure in their practices, many of us may be wondering…what is cloud computing, and what is AWS?Hopefully, this beginner-friendly guide will answer these questions and give you a foundational understanding of AWS and how cloud infrastructure differs from traditional IT.

What is cloud computing?

Cloud computing is data hosted via the internet by an independent party. This independent party extends its infrastructure to customers with a pay-as-you-go pricing model.

Cloud Service Providers

Recently, more organizations have given up physical data centers and are transitioning to the Cloud for their needs. The following are the top Cloud Infrastructure Services providers in 2022:

1. Amazon Web Services (AWS)
2. Microsoft Azure
3. Google Cloud Platform (GCP)

AWS| Amazon Web Services

At Codeup, our Cloud Administration program curriculum focuses on AWS. We prepare students to attempt two certification exams:

1. AWS Cloud Practitioner Exam
2. AWS Solutions Architect Associate Exam

AWS is the most mature of the cloud service providers, and the lead market provider of cloud services. AWS offers over 200 services, operating globally at a low cost.

Cloud-Based Infrastructure vs. Traditional IT

Cloud-Based Infrastructure

• Select the right resource for your organization based on needs such as power, storage, speed, and network, and easily make adjustments as needed
• You only pay for what you use
• Deploying infrastructure globally is easy and achievable in minutes
• There are no customer costs associated with maintenance, updates, or licensing
• Security and fault tolerance mechanisms are taken care of by the cloud service provider
• User data is saved at all times and protected in multiple data centers within a region so in the case of an emergency or disaster, service remains uninterrupted
• Operating in the cloud is all automated
• 24/7 trained IT staff is available for customer support

Traditional IT

• Organizations will need to acquire and setup servers independently and manually
• The organization is responsible for maintenance and hardware checkups
• The organization is responsible for backing up data and setting up a disaster recovery plan
• An IT staff will need to be hired by the organization
• When scaling up, it is necessary to acquire more hardware to meet the needs of the organization
• Scaling up or down is manual and time-consuming
• Requires a lot of up front capital to purchase the necessary hardware

If you're interested in jumpstarting your career in tech, and you're looking into cloud computing our Cloud Administration program may be right for you! Request more information to learn more, and check out some of our 100% free workshops to see if it's a good fit. When you're ready, apply to get started on your Codeup journey! We hope to hear from you soon.