What is our primary use case?
I use it to run our production workload.
What is most valuable?
I like the auto-scaling functionality and compliance requirements, whichever they are requesting.
I also appreciate new setup services, which allow customers to easily manage their entire AWS infrastructure through code, and the managed services that handle the heavy lifting for us.
What needs improvement?
AWS could benefit from being more cloud-agnostic. This means allowing customers to easily migrate their workloads and applications built on AWS services to other hyperscalers if needed. Currently, the architecture feels closed, making it difficult for customers to move to different cloud providers seamlessly.
One of the issues I'm facing is that my RDS SQL Server version 5.8 is reaching its end of life, and I need to upgrade it to a customer-wanted version. I want to do this on Graviton instances, but Graviton only starts with version 8.0 and currently doesn't support the 5.8 series.
We've raised a Priority Feature Request (PFR) with AWS to have this functionality added for at least three months. This would give us enough time to upgrade our database to the 8.0 version without any issues.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using it for the last two and a half years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The product is very stable and robust. I haven't experienced any issues so far.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The scalability and elasticity are key advantages of AWS compared to other providers. This is one of the main reasons why hyperscalers like AWS are preferred.
If we need to add or remove workloads, the performance remains consistent.
More than 70% of our workforce uses this solution. So, there are more than 40 end users.
How are customer service and support?
In situations beyond my expertise, I've contacted the engineers. They've been helpful in resolving issues, providing support with freezes, and offering guidance whenever needed.
The quality of the customer service and support depends on the engineer I interact with.
However, in most cases, including my own, around 75% of the time, the engineers I've encountered have been knowledgeable, supportive, and flexible.
While individual experiences may vary based on specific learning, I would generally rate the support as good.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
The specific reason my company chose this product was that whatever use case we were expecting, everything was readily available on the AWS cloud. We didn't want to reinvent the wheel.
We just wanted to choose the right services that would be cost-effective, optimized, meet customer requirements, and offer elasticity, scalability, flexibility, and security.
So, when we compared AWS to other cloud vendors like Azure or Google, AWS performed significantly better. Based on that, our leadership recommended going with AWS, and the business and technical teams supported that decision. So, by taking into account all the inputs from various departments, we decided to go with AWS.
How was the initial setup?
Setting up AWS was easy. I used Infrastructure as Code (IaC) with YAML codes to deploy the infrastructure quickly.
It took me about half an hour to spin up the VPC, security policy, launch instances, attach the Elastic Block Store (EBS) volumes, connect to the S3 VPN endpoint, and configure cloud-native services like CloudWatch and CloudTrail.
However, it took me almost a week to prepare the IaC code beforehand. This code can be easily reused and modified for future deployments with any minor changes required by the customer's use cases.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The pricing depends on the workload. For example, if your workload involves Windows technologies, AWS may not be the most cost-effective option. In that case, you might be better off with Azure.
But if you're working with open-source technologies, then AWS can be a good choice. They have their own process called RabbitMQ, which is an on-premises architecture where you can recompile all your applications to run on your own infrastructure. This can significantly reduce your costs compared to other hyperscalers like Google, Oracle, or Azure.
So, it would be worth my money to go with Amazon AWS at the end of the day. However, if it's a Windows-based workload, I wouldn't recommend AWS.
What other advice do I have?
You can just go ahead with AWS with your eyes closed. You won't regret it.
Overall, I would rate the solution an eight out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Amazon Web Services (AWS)
*Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer:
