AWS Explained: Compute, Storage, Databases, Networking, and IAM

AWS Explained: Compute, Storage, Databases, Networking, and IAM

Amazon Web Services is easier to learn by grouping services around a few infrastructure jobs rather than memorizing the full catalog.

Rendering diagram…

Compute

Common choices include:

• EC2 for VM-level control.
• ECS/Fargate for managed container workloads.
• EKS when Kubernetes is specifically required.
• Lambda for event-driven serverless execution.

Use the highest useful abstraction instead of choosing lower-level infrastructure by default.

Data and Storage

• S3 — object storage.
• RDS/Aurora — managed relational databases.
• DynamoDB — managed key-value/document workloads.
• EBS — block storage for EC2.

Choose a purpose-built data store based on access patterns and consistency requirements.

Networking and Messaging

VPCs, subnets, security groups, load balancers, Route 53, CloudFront, and NAT/private connectivity shape how workloads communicate.

SQS, SNS, EventBridge, Kinesis, and related services cover different queue, pub/sub, event-routing, and streaming patterns.

Regions and Availability Zones

An AWS Region contains multiple isolated Availability Zones. For important workloads, distribute critical compute and suitable data components across AZs instead of relying on one failure domain.

Multi-region architecture is a separate step with additional consistency, operational, and cost complexity; use it when business recovery requirements justify it.

Identity

Use IAM roles and temporary credentials for workloads rather than embedding access keys in code. Apply least privilege and protect administrative/account boundaries deliberately.

Well-Architected Framework

AWS currently organizes workload reviews around six pillars:

• Operational Excellence
• Security
• Reliability
• Performance Efficiency
• Cost Optimization
• Sustainability

These are a better design checklist than maximizing the number of AWS services in one diagram.

Final Takeaway

Think of AWS as building blocks for compute, storage, data, networking, messaging, identity, and operations. Start with the simplest managed services that satisfy the workload, design across failure domains where required, and review architecture against the six Well-Architected pillars.

References

• AWS Documentation
• AWS Well-Architected Framework
• AWS Well-Architected Pillars