Amazon Web Services (AWS) is the world's most comprehensive and widely adopted cloud platform, offering over 200 fully featured services from data centers globally. AWS enables organizations to move faster, lower IT costs, and scale applications through a pay-as-you-go model that eliminates upfront infrastructure investment. Understanding AWS services requires recognizing that each service solves a specific problem within a broader cloud architecture — compute services run your code, storage services persist your data, networking services connect resources securely, and managed databases eliminate operational overhead, all working together to build resilient, scalable systems.
What This Cheat Sheet Covers
This topic spans 15 focused tables and 141 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-0c55b159cbfafe1f0 --instance-type t3.micro | • Virtual servers providing scalable compute capacity in the cloud • offers 150+ instance types optimized for compute, memory, storage, or GPU workloads with per-second billing. | |
exports.handler = async (event) => { return { statusCode: 200, body: 'Hello' };}; | • Serverless compute that runs code in response to events without provisioning servers • supports up to 10GB memory, 15-minute timeout, and automatic scaling from zero to thousands of concurrent executions. | |
aws ecs run-task --launch-type FARGATE --task-definition my-task | • Serverless compute engine for containers that eliminates the need to manage EC2 instances • works with ECS and EKS, allocating right-sized compute resources per container. | |
aws lightsail create-instances --instance-names my-server --blueprint-id wordpress | • Simplified virtual private server with predictable monthly pricing starting at $3.50• ideal for simple web apps, dev/test environments, and small databases without complex AWS configurations. | |
aws batch submit-job --job-name my-job --job-definition my-def --job-queue my-queue | • Fully managed batch processing at any scale that dynamically provisions optimal compute resources based on job requirements • handles job scheduling, retries, and dependencies across EC2 or Fargate. |