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PeerSpot user
I help CTOs/Managed Service Providers save 7%-55% on AWS bills with AI. at a tech services company with 1-10 employees
Real User
Much faster than other solutions at a super low cost
Pros and Cons
  • "Some of the introduced one-year and three-year reservations helped us reduce costs early on. With time, we learned how to minimize our at REST capacity, allowing us to scale up and scale down in near seconds."
  • "Serverless computing: This can be more cost-efficient just regarding computing resources than renting or purchasing a fixed quantity of servers, which involves periods of underutilization or nonuse."
  • "They are mainly generalists without access to the operating system. As such, they can provide container level insights,not necessarily at the application level."
  • "Somehow Amazon associated their marketplace as a place to find images of various installs (preconfigured software) and was late in the game enabling and promoting SaaS-based solutions. Thus, the AWS marketplace has near zero awareness in the mind of the prospect to find solutions to various problems plaguing them."

What is our primary use case?

In recent years, we have use AWS primarily for its serverless capabilities. It has the ability to scale up from one to 10,000 vCPUs for a few brief seconds. The vCPUs perform intensive calculations with deep learning (artificial intelligence calculations), which is not possible via traditional computing approaches.

How has it helped my organization?

AWS helped us reduce costs from CapEx to OpEx. Some of the introduced one-year and three-year reservations helped us reduce costs early on. With time, we learned how to minimize our at REST capacity, allowing us to scale up and scale down in near seconds. 

What is most valuable?

Serverless computing: This can be more cost-efficient just regarding computing resources than renting or purchasing a fixed quantity of servers, which involves periods of underutilization or nonuse. It can even be more cost-efficient than provisioning an autoscaling group, because even autoscaling groups are typically designed to have underutilization to allow time for new instances to start up.

Also, a serverless architecture means developers and operations specialists do not need to spend time setting up and tuning autoscaling policies or systems. The cloud provider is responsible for ensuring that the capacity meets the demand.

What needs improvement?

AWS Marketplace: Somehow Amazon associated their marketplace as a place to find images of various installs (preconfigured software) and was late in the game enabling and promoting SaaS-based solutions. Thus, the AWS marketplace has near zero awareness in the mind of the prospect to find solutions to various problems plaguing them. 

Buyer's Guide
Amazon AWS
April 2025
Learn what your peers think about Amazon AWS. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: April 2025.
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For how long have I used the solution?

More than five years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

No stability issues.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

No scalability issues.

How are customer service and support?

They are mainly generalists without access to the operating system. As such, they can provide container level insights,not necessarily at the application level.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

I have used AWS for the last eight years since 2010. Previously, we used various VPS, dedicated servers, and Amazon's solutions, which were crude but a promise for something beyond the traditional infrastructure options. 

How was the initial setup?

It was straightforward.

What about the implementation team?

No vendor team was necessary.

What was our ROI?

We are reducing costs year-over-year.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

Much faster than other solutions at a super low cost.

One of the best-kept ways to reduce costs is to develop it on serverless technologies with AWS Lambda, SNS, DynamoDB, and S3. Business example: By deploying our websites on Amazon S3 instead of the traditional Apache web servers, we eliminated many of the compute costs. Our WordPress site is served by a static S3 bucket. One of the benefits of this is our sites are superfast, especially with CloudFront. CloudFront makes the S3 hosted sites available across the world in milliseconds, reducing network hops and costs similar to that of Akamai. 

Just imagine the headaches associated with Apache web servers, MySQL databases, and Nginx reverse proxies? 

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. AWS marketplace vendor.
PeerSpot user
PeerSpot user
Network & Server Engineer at a tech vendor with 51-200 employees
Real User
We can spin up the server anytime and have root access to it
Pros and Cons
  • "We can spin up the server anytime and have root access to it."
  • "We can easily upgrade and downgrade the Instance."
  • "It has the technical support features, but they need to be improved. It has lots of users, but they need to be managed accordingly."

What is our primary use case?

We hosted our website in the Amazon AWS. This is very easy to use and the user-friendly dashboard. 

How has it helped my organization?

Amazon AWS has improved our organization. It has all the features which we need. We can spin up the server anytime and have root access to it. We built our website and hosted the Amazon server. We also set up the RDS database, which has the capability to help the MySQL queries. The user interface is very user-friendly, and you can assign Elastic IP anytime. Overall, this is the best IaaS for hosting the website and the database.

What is most valuable?

  1. Spin up the server when we need it: We can spun up the new server. 
  2. Elastic IP: Sometimes, our website gets hacked with malware and it is easy to change the IP of the Instance.
  3. Snapshot: We can easily create a snapshot in Amazon AWS, then restore it.
  4. RDS: Manages all the database queries.
  5. Instance upgrade and downgrade: We can easily upgrade and downgrade the Instance.

What needs improvement?

Technical support: It has the technical support features, but they need to be improved. It has lots of users, but they need to be managed accordingly.

For how long have I used the solution?

One to three years.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

One of the best things in Amazon AWS is you are billed for the service you use. 

Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Amazon AWS
April 2025
Learn what your peers think about Amazon AWS. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: April 2025.
861,170 professionals have used our research since 2012.
it_user787548 - PeerSpot reviewer
Founder with 51-200 employees
Real User
Accessing apps on AWS via my iPhone is awful. We use it, because it improves the speed for us to access vendors.
Pros and Cons
  • "It improves the speed for us to access vendors."
  • "Accessing apps on AWS via my iPhone is awful."
  • "AWS for API, or Seller Central, is no improvement from what we had (our internal tools we designed to update accounts, change customer network profiles, monitoring, MRTG graphs, etc), when AWS should be blazing."

What is our primary use case?

To access systems of partner/vendor companies, we maintain an instance to transfer data to our instance, then privately back to us. Basically, a BRAS, B-RAS or BBRAS device.

How has it helped my organization?

It improves the speed for us to access vendors, etc. AWS is extremely slow over the internet. Where we have GigE fiber over dedicated OC48 links, and when ping times to Dallas, TX from San Francisco is 30ms RTT on average, AWS is always 20ms higher. To AWS East, it is 70-110ms RTT, and the data transfer almost seems throttled. So I spun up an instance, made a BRAS image, like how DSL customers access the internet, and set up a peer with AWS to transfer data privately, then publicly from our instance to the AWS IP of our vendor, or partner and it has improved response times dramatically. The average API access latency was 250ms, horribly slow - already authenticated, etc. 

We also use it for our Amazon Seller Account and Amazon Vendor Account, where Amazon's systems run. Amazon recently moved their systems to CloudFront, but AWS DNS is awful slow. So the BRAS helps with the DNS as well.

What is most valuable?

Bidding on instances with dynamic pricing. So, I can do something that is not critical in terms of speed, like a production system, but testing and bid at an uber low price, and I will usually get what I want.

What needs improvement?

The network is way overloaded. Comcast is overloaded. So between the two, it sucks.

I am used to Level (3) or Verizon/Alter.net AS701 with fabulous ping times and throughput, where I click something and it works. 

It is the problem with the nomenclature of SDN [software defined networking] as engineers today do not understand networking, TCP/IP, or anything. I was 18 during the .com bust, but I remember accessing tools, as I worked for a Global ISP NTT, which owned Verio, the largest webhost at the time. We had Dual OC-3's to our office, when our office was just a remote NOC, but we had cloud computing before it was nomenclature. We accessed customer data, and had tools to do things quickly, instead of logging into routers, IDS, IPS, switches, and server. If it was a repetitive task, it would be via a browser, and the browser accessed a txn server rather than run cron jobs every 15 minutes. I will say that AWS for API, or Seller Central, is no improvement from what we had (our internal tools we designed to update accounts, change customer network profiles, monitoring, MRTG graphs, etc), when AWS should be blazing. 

Accessing apps on AWS via my iPhone is awful. Apple is behind the times in speed, battery, and even the screen, but it is aesthetically pleasing, so it wins. Android devices by Samsung are superior, but I use iPhone because that is what we use in Silicon Valley, which is on Verizon's LTE Advanced (LTE-X is their coined term) network, and the latency is great, 20-30ms, speeds of 40 Megabits/s, symmetrical are quite common, and sometimes I see 150/150 Megabits/s.  

For how long have I used the solution?

More than five years.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

When they first moved Amazon Seller Central to AWS CloudFront from AWS, I would see connections to Hong Kong and Singapore. Maybe I was sent there because the USA East was overloaded. I do not know. So, we started using Verisign for recursive DNS, and to host our own domain name(s), and I noticed, it fixed the problem. Every ISP and DNS server, either Unicast like Level(3) 4.2.2.1-4.2.2.6, Google 8.8.8.8, NTT was the best performer 129.250.35.250/251, Comcast was garbage, while on Comcast network 75.75.75.75, Verizon was good (FiOS [consumer and SMB], and Enterprise which is what we have aka MCI aka UUNET/Alter.net AS701/AS702/AS703), and SprintLink AS1239 was good.  However, we just tested Sprint, and Verizon. Verizon provides backup services for us, actually tertiary, we provide our own secondary.  So I signed us up with Verisign with DDoS protection, made Verizon secondary, and the feed server from us, feeds VeriSign and Verizon. That fixed the AWS CloudFront location issue, which to me, shows how poor AWS DNS is.

We would get responses that are AWS Hong Kong, even when they moved to CloudFront to speed up Seller Central (I complained to corporate via a letter FedEx'ed to Amazon). I asked for a private MPLS link, which we would pay for, and we were told it would be worked on. During peak times, it would lag and time out, it was awful. It still lags, but I route as much as we can via the BRAS setup. 

What other advice do I have?

I have pushed clients towards Microsoft Azure. I have bugged Microsoft to add links to their network in the BNA region, BNA to Atlanta (additional link), BNA to MCI aka Kansas City, BNA to Chicago, BNA to WDC, and BNA to Dallas, TX to improve access for things at BNA. It is not critical. It is just the only facility that is 30ms slower than others. Azure in Chicago, Wyoming, Bellevue, Silicon Valley, Los Angeles, or Texas is very low latency. 

I have also pushed clients to IBM Bluemix, as their partnership with Akamai makes API access is really fast. Azure with Verizon CDN/Terremark is fabulous.

I have to add this. AWS sucks, even though I am a customer.

Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
PeerSpot user
AWS Cloud Specialist at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
Consultant
Top 20
Migrate complex environments to AWS Cloud to reduce costs, improve performance and scalability

What is most valuable?

AWS's innovations are incredible.

How has it helped my organization?

You can migrate complex environments to AWS Cloud reducing costs, improving performance and scalability.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have used AWS for five years.

What was my experience with deployment of the solution?

Yes, every platform has problems, but they are very fast at solving the problems.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Yes, every platform has problems, but they are very fast and they are always working to improve.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

No, I never encountered any issues with scalability.

How are customer service and technical support?

Customer Service:

Their priority is the customers.

Technical Support:

The technical support is the best.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

No. I tried to use Azure, but I can't.

How was the initial setup?

Yes, the initial setup is not so straightforward. The concept changes and you will need to understand this.

Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
it_user717240 - PeerSpot reviewer
Director of IT Projects - AngularJS developer at a tech services company with 501-1,000 employees
Consultant
Makes Maintenance And Creation Of New Clone Environments Easier

What is most valuable?

AWS provides a lot of solutions to design secure, elastic and serverless software architectures.

How has it helped my organization?

More than 30 BBVA Group web pages are working without servers, saving costs and reducing security problems, with AWS services like CloudFront, WAF, S3, Lambda, SQS, and API Gateway.

All our infrastructure is defined in JSON files, thanks to CloudFormation, which makes maintenance and creation of new clone environments easier.

What needs improvement?

Lambda@Edge, for example, it's new and has a lot of room for improvement.

For how long have I used the solution?

Four years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It is usual with new functionalities, but AWS does resolve stability issues quickly.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

With CloudSearch; the service finally autoscales but in excessive time. You never lose information, but you can't access new data when there are peaks of requests for creation of new documents.

How are customer service and technical support?

Seven out of 10.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

Yes, I used OVH and other cloud providers like Azure or Google. AWS is much better. It is a complete platform.

How was the initial setup?

Required some service, but in general there is a lot of documentation and there are training courses.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

AWS is appropriate for professional solutions. For other types of projects it's a bit expensive.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

Azure, Google Cloud. AWS is years ahead of its rivals.

What other advice do I have?

Think "serverless". With AWS you can design your architecture, thinking distinct and oriented to events, decoupling processes, solving possible errors, multi-region or Multi-AZ.

Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user

AWS is a great Infra Solution. Need more adoption by businesses.

it_user716571 - PeerSpot reviewer
Architecte solutions Amazon Web Services at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
MSP
Terms Of Licencing And Reserved Instances Are Very Efficient

What is most valuable?

Amount of services, fully-managed services, and the power of Infrastructure as code (deployment and automation). AWS has many atomic services (Lambda, SNS, SQS. and so on…).

How has it helped my organization?

Migration of On Premise Data Center to AWS to allow cost optimization, and full operational automation to focus on experimentation and innovation.

Cross account possibilities for a big IT organization (user management, resources management, etc.).

What needs improvement?

It would be nice to be able to test Direct Connect without having to pay a line. Also, the possibility to use VPC Peering with one point VPN Gateway (for the moment, impossible).

For how long have I used the solution?

More than one year.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Not yet.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Not when we know scalability optimization and processes.

How are customer service and technical support?

I have not call AWS support yet, but it seems to be very fast according to the various returns I had.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

Switched to be more global (AWS Region) and more to the way of a serverless paradigm.

How was the initial setup?

Very simple, an e-mail address, a credit card, and the account is open.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

The Free Tiers program is great for testing solutions.

Their terms of licencing and reserved instances are very efficient (like Spot Instances for identified workloads).

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

Not really, I fell in love with AWS right away: their services, quality and quantity of documentation. With the various testimonies that I received, I had no doubt.

What other advice do I have?

The Cloud Adoption Framework and the Well-Architected on AWS documents are a must read.

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer. AWS Partner
PeerSpot user
it_user701412 - PeerSpot reviewer
Cloud Architect at a tech vendor with 1,001-5,000 employees
Vendor
Easy provisioning means quick time to market when a new environment is required

What is most valuable?

  • RDS: Because of its auto-scaling, multi-zone availability, and its quick spin up of database servers.
  • EC2 Servers: For the agility of server provisioning and the AMI automations.
  • Lambda: Because of AI capabilities by writing functions that trigger on events.
  • Route 53: For traffic engineering.
  • WAF: For security and multiple other features of AWS.

How has it helped my organization?

Rolling deployments, quick time to market;

From one day deployment time, it came down to 15 minutes.

Easy provisioning means quick time to market when a new environment is required.

What needs improvement?

The console's UI could be a little better, a fluid User Experience is missing.

For example, in order to see the instance details properly, we have to scroll the description part up or down, which is not a recommended way of doing it.

For how long have I used the solution?

Three years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Just once, when MongoDB infrastructure could not mount to EBS.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

No.

How are customer service and technical support?

Excellent. 10 out of 10 for this.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

IBM Softlayer and Azure. Both are not automated to the level that AWS is automated.

How was the initial setup?

Straightforward.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

Pay per use.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

What other advice do I have?

Migrate to AWS for speed and agility, combined with its security features.

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
it_user701505 - PeerSpot reviewer
Analista de Projetos at a tech services company with 201-500 employees
Consultant
It has helped our engineers to improve our performance both financially and in terms of traffic generated

What is most valuable?

The valuable features for us are scalability and flexibility.

Regarding scalability, we have specific days of the week that the traffic in our system exceeds more than twice the load system. So with the scalability, I can support this load. If I need to perform a specific marketing action, my system will respond to the request easily.

How has it helped my organization?

Before AWS, the time for availability of a new server would be more than a week, and currently, it can be measured in minutes.

Failover also wasn’t easy to configure and wasn’t safe.

It has helped our engineers to improve our performance both financially and in terms of traffic generated.

What needs improvement?

I see some applications, like AWS Deploy for example, require usage of other applications. This and other issues should be better explained in the documentation.

For how long have I used the solution?

We have been using the solution since May 2012.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

In the beginning, during the implementation, we had problems with stability, especially in S3.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We did not encounter any issues with scalability.

How are customer service and technical support?

We don’t pay for professional support. However, the support forum helps us with most problems.

Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?

For cloud solutions, during our research, we searched the best quality service inside our budget.

How was the initial setup?

The setup was very straightforward.

What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?

Unfortunately, the price is high. The pricing and licensing is explained well in the documentation.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We evaluated other options, including Rackspace, Google Cloud, MS Azure, etc.

What other advice do I have?

Pay attention especially to costs.

Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Amazon AWS Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.
Updated: April 2025
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Amazon AWS Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.