Amazon Web Services (AWS) is the world's most comprehensive cloud platform, offering over 200 fully featured services from 39 regions and 123 Availability Zones globally. AWS provides on-demand computing resources without upfront capital investment, transforming how organizations build, deploy, and scale applications. The platform operates on a pay-as-you-go pricing model and has expanded rapidly into generative AI with Amazon Bedrock, Amazon Nova foundation models, and Amazon Q Developer. One critical insight: AWS services are designed to work together seamlessly—understanding how EC2, VPC, IAM, and S3 interconnect is far more valuable than knowing each service in isolation.
What This Cheat Sheet Covers
This topic spans 20 focused tables and 160 indexed concepts. Below is a complete table-by-table outline of this topic, spanning foundational concepts through advanced details.
Table 1: Compute Services
| Service | Example | Description |
|---|---|---|
aws ec2 run-instances --image-id ami-0abcdef1234567890 --instance-type m8g.large | • Virtual servers in the cloud with full OS control • supports Linux, Windows, macOS across instance families: general purpose (M8g), compute (C8g), memory (R8g), storage, accelerated • Graviton4 ARM-based instances deliver up to 30% better price-performance | |
exports.handler = async (event) => { return { statusCode: 200, body: 'Hello' };}; | • Serverless compute — runs code in response to events • pay per 100ms of compute time, auto-scales to thousands of concurrent executions • SnapStart eliminates cold starts for Java, Python, and .NET | |
aws ecs create-cluster --cluster-name my-cluster | • Fully managed Docker container orchestration • integrates natively with ALB, CloudWatch, IAM • Express Mode (Nov 2025) simplifies deployment with production-ready defaults | |
eksctl create cluster --name prod-cluster --region us-west-2 | • Managed Kubernetes running upstream K8s • supports both EC2 and Fargate compute, Auto Mode for simplified cluster management |