AWS makes deployment and management of infrastructure easier. We are using so many features, including Lambda, Elastic Beanstalk, Elastic Container Service, EC2 instances, and Landing Zone. We rely heavily on AWS, and we're constantly taking advantage of new features as they come out to see how they can add value to the business.
Head of Implementation and Security at a financial services firm with 1-10 employees
It makes deployment and management of infrastructure easier
Pros and Cons
- "AWS's containerization is the most useful feature for us."
- "We rely heavily on AWS, and we're constantly taking advantage of new features as they come out to see how they can add value to the business."
- "I'd like to see AWS implement consolidated billing for businesses operating under one group. We want to consolidate the functionalities but keep the billing separate. That is a challenge we've faced, and I feel it's something they can improve on. For example, maybe you have three businesses that are operating under one group, and you want each entity to have a separate bill for the respective workload that they're using."
- "I'd like to see AWS implement consolidated billing for businesses operating under one group."
What is our primary use case?
What is most valuable?
AWS's containerization is the most useful feature for us.
What needs improvement?
I'd like to see AWS implement consolidated billing for businesses operating under one group. We want to consolidate the functionalities but keep the billing separate. That is a challenge we've faced, and I feel it's something they can improve on. For example, maybe you have three businesses that are operating under one group, and you want each entity to have a separate bill for the respective workload that they're using. But in terms of technical expertise, you want to consolidate the technical support and function of the three accounts. That's an area where AWS is struggling.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using Amazon AWS for about four or five years.
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What do I think about the stability of the solution?
AWS is stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
AWS is scalable. We're serving close to 7,000 or 8,000 end-users with it.
How are customer service and support?
AWS support is good.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
AWS is pay as you go.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We reviewed the main three cloud providers: GCP, Azure, and AWS.
What other advice do I have?
I rate AWS 9.5 out of 10. I would recommend it.
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 does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Director at HALL MARK GLOBAL TECHNOLOGIES
Stable environment on a mature cloud platform
Pros and Cons
- "Newly introduced features advance capabilities."
- "A scalable and secure product"
- "All the services and features provided by AWS are good."
- "An integrated platform would make it easier for administrators to monitor and manage."
- "There are multiple operational and administrative services on AWS, I am expecting to see an integrated single platform of all the services so that it will be easier for the administrators to monitor and manage."
What is most valuable?
The scalability and security of Amazon AWS are the most valuable features.
What needs improvement?
There are multiple operational and administrative services on AWS, I am expecting to see an integrated single platform of all the services so that it will be easier for the administrators to monitor and manage.
For how long have I used the solution?
We are resellers of the production services of AWS. I have been working with Amazon AWS for almost 8 years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The AWS products are stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The environment is stable. Every time a new feature is introduced, it advances the capabilities. Once the product is deployed, you can scale up easily.
How are customer service and support?
Technical support has been very good.
How was the initial setup?
The initial set up of AWS is easy and not complex.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The pricing is reasonable and comparable to similar services when run on-premise.
What other advice do I have?
All the services and features provided by AWS are good. They are always improving their features.
I recommend implementing the products on Amazon Web Services. It is a stable environment and mature cloud platform. I would rate the product an 8 out of 10.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
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Senior Devops at a computer software company with 5,001-10,000 employees
Easy deployment and integration with good pricing
Pros and Cons
- "Easy to deploy through the channel model for serverless architecture and easy to integrate through the organization model."
- "The technical support of AWS is very good; when I need something, they reach out to me fast."
- "Some services which were easy to use through shortcuts are now more complicated to use."
- "On the console, they used to have some shortcuts making this solution easier to work with, but now we have been dealing with so many problems on the console, and some of the options are not very useful in my perspective, so they should bring back those options that make things easier to run some of the services."
What is our primary use case?
I've used it to create some internal projects for my organization, particularly for designing the infrastructure of those projects.
What is most valuable?
One feature I find most valuable is the easy deployment by using the channel model for serverless architecture. Another feature I find valuable is the versatility of the service S3 because it allows you to give permissions to describe the users from their own accounts, from external users, or external accounts.
What needs improvement?
On the console, they used to have some shortcuts making this solution easier to work with, but now we have been dealing with so many problems on the console, and some of the options are not very useful in my perspective, so they should bring back those options that make things easier to run some of the services.
Most of the time the options are pre-selected, or you have to go with the default settings, but from my perspective, there are some services which are now more complicated to use than before.
An additional feature I'd like to see in the future is more integration with public repositories, though some use their own repositories for security purposes, but I think it'll be easier to deploy services through public repositories.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using this solution for almost four years now.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
This solution is stable. I've been using it for a long time and have only seen an outage in one of the regions. It's a good solution.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The scalability of this solution is good.
How are customer service and support?
The technical support of AWS is very good. When I need something, they reach out to me fast.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup was straightforward. The complexity of the setup will depend on the number of services e.g. it's something that involves a lot of services, it could get complex, but for a complex setup, you could use things like transformation or Terraform because they will enable you to use infrastructure as a code to make it easier. There's a lot of things to configure.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Licensing of this solution is paid on a yearly basis.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
I evaluated Microsoft Azure.
What other advice do I have?
This was deployed on the cloud. I don't remember which version because I didn't deploy it. I was not the person running the project of implementing AWS, but I know the client used it, but I don't know which version.
It's not so difficult to use because there's a lot of tutorials.
I'm not completely sure about the number of AWS users in our organization. We have a partnership with them so we have some accounts, but we don't completely have our load on AWS. We are mostly on Azure. Our main server is on Azure. On AWS, we mostly have some internal projects and services, but most of the main load is on Azure.
We have a small workload on AWS. Sometimes we use it to deploy some of our best projects. We use it on some internal projects. It's a random thing so it could be 1,000 users or 50 users. I'll say approximately 200 to 500 users.
We don't require too many people for deploying this solution because our projects are proof of concepts. Up to ten people from different departments would be needed for deployment if it's a business requirement e.g. people from Approvals and Projects, etc.
As for increasing AWS usage, the organization sometimes thinks of moving some of the load to AWS because of good pricing, because currently, our main streams are on Azure, but it's not a sure thing.
I'm unsure if there's any additional cost aside from the need to pay the license annually because I don't directly manage it.
My advice to organizations looking into implementing AWS, especially if they're going to use it on a big scale, is to take advantage of AWS' organization model to make integration with their policies easier. It will also make administration easier for the different accounts, departments, and structure of the organizations thinking of moving to AWS.
I would rate this solution a nine out of ten.
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Senior Researcher at a computer software company with 10,001+ employees
Stable, scalable, and reduces overhead costs
Pros and Cons
- "Cost-effective and tolerant."
- "AWS has reduced our costs and maintenance requirements."
- "Setup is somewhat complex."
- "An area for improvement would be API creation - a lot of tools are provided, but there can be issues with integrating them."
What is our primary use case?
My primary use case was as a place to migrate legacy systems.
How has it helped my organization?
AWS has reduced our costs and maintenance requirements. It also allows us to control our load in peak times and automatically increases or decreases your capacity as required.
What is most valuable?
The features I have found most valuable are S3 buckets and Lambda services.
What needs improvement?
An area for improvement would be API creation - a lot of tools are provided, but there can be issues with integrating them. There is also a cost underlay, in that at the end of the day, some costs are not in the picture, so AWS needs to improve its costing toolset.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using this solution for two years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The stability of AWS has improved over time and can now be well managed.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
This solution is scalable to any limit.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I previously used Rackspace Openstack but switched because it required more manpower than AWS, and AWS is more cost-effective and tolerant.
How was the initial setup?
The setup was somewhat complex. It was done in three phases over a year.
What was our ROI?
This solution reduced our overhead cost by 30-40%.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Technical support is expensive to use.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
I evaluated Oracle Cloud, but it was more complex to use and provided a smaller toolset than AWS.
What other advice do I have?
This solution is one of the top tools available for legacy migration. I would rate this solution as eight out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Hybrid Cloud
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Senior Vice President Information Technology at TASC Towers
Issue-free with good performance and a relatively simple setup
Pros and Cons
- "It's very stable and the performance is good."
- "The product offers a lot of functionality."
- "The solution can get to be a little expensive."
What is our primary use case?
We are using the solution for our core applications and our core infrastructure.
What is most valuable?
The product offers a lot of functionality.
Our vendor who provides us a specific core application uses AWS and it's just simple for us if we use it too.
The initial setup is straightforward.
The solution has been issue-free. It's very stable and the performance is good.
What needs improvement?
The solution can get to be a little expensive.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using the solution for a year and a half.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The product is stable. There are no bugs or glitches. The performance is good.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
We have about 100 users on the solution right now.
How are customer service and support?
Technical support is good. We have had no issues with them. We are satisfied with their service.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We also use Microsoft Azure.
How was the initial setup?
The initial implementation process is pretty simple and easy. It's not complex or overly difficult. A company shouldn't have any issues with the deployment process.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The costs could always be lowered.
How often we pay can vary, depending on the exact service. We pay, for example, both yearly and monthly.
What other advice do I have?
As a cloud-based solution, we are using the latest version all the time.
I'd rate the solution at an eight out of ten.
I would recommend the solution to other users and organizations.
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 does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Software Architect at AIOPS group
Very stable and scalable, but could use more integration
Pros and Cons
- "One of the most valuable things about it, besides the stability, is that you can forget about infrastructure because you're just doing it on AWS. I remember the times before AWS and other cloud solutions existed, and it was a huge pain to get real hardware, put it inside, configure everything, report everything, and do a scale. It was very, very difficult compared to how it is now. Not even just AWS, but what all these cloud providers are doing, I would say, is a huge advancement in technology."
- "One of the most valuable things about it, besides the stability, is that you can forget about infrastructure because you're just doing it on AWS."
- "AWS could be improved with more integration, but I can see that they're developing these features and working very hard on their platform."
What is our primary use case?
Our primary use case of AWS, for most projects, is for hosting on AWS and developing locally, as well as testing some AWS environments. We are mostly using this platform from a developer point of view. AWS is our cloud platform by choice.
What is most valuable?
One of the most valuable things about it, besides the stability, is that you can forget about infrastructure because you're just doing it on AWS. I remember the times before AWS and other cloud solutions existed, and it was a huge pain to get real hardware, put it inside, configure everything, report everything, and do a scale. It was very, very difficult compared to how it is now. Not even just AWS, but what all these cloud providers are doing, I would say, is a huge advancement in technology.
What needs improvement?
AWS could be improved with more integration, but I can see that they're developing these features and working very hard on their platform.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been working with AWS for a few years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Amazon AWS is very stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
One of the major points for AWS is the scalability that comes with it. You can monitor it really well, and you can even adjust down, or sometimes up. What this technology allows is very nice.
AWS is predominantly used in most of the projects that we have. In my organization, there are thousands of users who are using AWS.
How are customer service and support?
I have never personally contacted tech support.
How was the initial setup?
There isn't really an installation for AWS, but you will need certain certificates to download the interface. I generated some certificates, put them on my machine, and then used them to connect to AWS services.
It depends on the project, but there is usually only one guy needed for deployment. For bigger, more complex platforms, you may need two or three guys to deploy AWS.
What about the implementation team?
I implemented AWS myself.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
You pay for a license, and that's how you get your own account. These are usually not individual licenses, but rather for a group of people. I think these licenses come at some volume, but I don't know many details about the licensing.
What other advice do I have?
I rate AWS a five out of ten, but it's mainly because I don't feel very experienced in AWS. I have gone to the console many times and seen many features that I have never used. I'm sure I can learn quickly, though, because there is a lot of information shared on the internet about how to use it—there are a lot of resources that you can use to learn, and there are a lot of features available on AWS. They're working very hard on their platform, and I can only see their usage growing in the future.
I would certainly recommend AWS to others.
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 does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Software Developer at Generate Impact
Great documentation with an excellent community and a reasonable pricing structure
Pros and Cons
- "The pricing model is good. It's pay-as-you-go."
- "I'm just a customer and an end-user; I'd highly recommend the solution to other users as one of the best cloud options out there right now."
- "It would be ideal if they could provide automatic health reports. That way, I would be able to understand at a glance the state of my services at any given time."
What is our primary use case?
I use the solution for deploying some applications that use cloud computing.
What is most valuable?
It offers a lot of tools, which we leverage.
At the moment I'm using Lambda service and also AC2 machines - as a platform as a service and infrastructure as a service.
The pricing model is good. It's pay-as-you-go. You only pay for what you use.
The solution offers a lot of very helpful documentation. There's also a great community that surrounds it that is quite helpful if you have questions or want to learn something.
What needs improvement?
Personally, I need to improve myself in terms of the knowledge I have around the product. My goal is to maybe get certified in order to understand it better. It would be helpful if they would be able to provide me with more certification information.
It's a good platform. I don't have any issues with it at the moment.
It would be ideal if they could provide automatic health reports. That way, I would be able to understand at a glance the state of my services at any given time.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've used the solution for three or four years at this point.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The solution is stable. We have many items deployed in AWS and we haven't had any issues. there are no bugs or glitches. It's problem-free.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
AWS provides us with a lot of tools for deploying automatically when we are working, for example, in a new feature. We have options for automatic deployments and don't have issues with size.
How are customer service and support?
There's a lot of great documentation and community support. I'm learning a lot and can find any answers I need there.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I'm working with AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud Computing right now.
How was the initial setup?
I work with my customer's solutions and I deploy into AWS to provide the end product for my customers. I don't directly deal with AWS implementations themselves.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The pricing is good and it's set up as a pay-as-you-go. It's not overly expensive.
What other advice do I have?
I'm just a customer and an end-user.
I'd highly recommend the solution to other users. It's one of the best cloud options out there right now.
I'd rate the solution at 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 does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Systems Architect at a educational organization with 1,001-5,000 employees
Flexible and good for building machine learning workloads
Pros and Cons
- "We've built several AI ML solutions and done lots of work on the GPUs available on Amazon servers. We did a lot of work around web spidering, natural language processing, and machine learning or deep learning workloads."
- "I think Amazon could improve some of the security or fine-grained access for metadata and many other things."
What is our primary use case?
We're using AWS for limited purposes right now. The university has its storage, servers, and large amounts of data center equipment, and the cloud fills a niche. We put things in the cloud so that others have access. But from a storage standpoint, 95 percent of the usage is entirely on-premises. We might use it more in the future, but we're trying to build up a storage ecosystem right now. We'll likely build that around some open-source solution, like Ceph or MEAN.io, or something from a popular vendor.
RedHat has Ceph storage too, and IBM has object storage. I'm not sure what the university will go with, but those are the ones we are looking at. We're using AWS S3 for general storage and storing images. We also use AWS as a platform for building some web services and things like that.
What is most valuable?
We've built several AI ML solutions and done lots of work on the GPUs available on Amazon servers. We did a lot of work around web spidering, natural language processing, and machine learning or deep learning workloads.
What needs improvement?
I think Amazon could improve some of the security or fine-grained access for metadata and many other things. From a cloud standpoint, Amazon provides more ways to restrict access or provide fine-grained access to different services. For the time being, I think the ecosystem is relatively secure, but there is room for improvement.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
AWS is scalable. It's serving about 150 users at my company right now. All of the users are researchers who do their own thing. Each research team manages its own partition and has fine-grained access to all the services. Small groups of around 10 to 15 people manage their own respective groups as to all the requirements associated with AWS.
How was the initial setup?
We customized our Amazon AWS deployment. The process takes about three to five hours, depending on the ecosystems we are building. It depends on whether it is related to web services or the call configuration. Some configurations take no more than half an hour. If you're doing something involving the server, you need to personally install some servers and some of the other database-related stuff.
I'm one of the AWS architects, but we have administrators who take care of the maintenance. I'm looking at some of the SNIA content, and it seems pretty good for object storage or some of the other storage-related options. I'm still trying to see which solutions are potentially more suitable for us.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
I'm not sure about the licensing. I don't know what kind of subscription the university bought. I imagine it's similar to Cognizant, which had a usage-based mechanism. We bought yearly subscriptions for specific servers while pre-booking some of the server-based storage or computing infrastructure.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We've used Azure also. They are all fairly good.
What other advice do I have?
I rate AWS eight out of 10. I used to work in Cognizant and TCS before that, and we used different cloud services, such as Amazon and Azure. If you want some kind of public cloud infrastructure, I would go with one of these or maybe Google Cloud. The university is in the process of setting up its own storage or server ecosystem. We plan to store massive amounts of video, images, and other objects, like our AI/ML workloads.
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 does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Director - Technology Operations at a educational organization with 10,001+ employees
Helpful service for a variety of applications
Pros and Cons
- "Amazon AWS contains a lot of helpful services."
- "Amazon AWS would be improved if it were more stable and if customer support's responses were faster."
What is our primary use case?
We use Amazon AWS for many applications as well as Amazon's native services. We have a mix of content-based workloads and traditional legacy type of applications.
What is most valuable?
Amazon AWS contains a lot of helpful services.
What needs improvement?
Amazon AWS would be improved if it were more stable and if customer support's responses were faster.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using this solution for many years, somewhere between seven and ten.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
This solution has been relatively stable. We had one issue sometime back, so the infrastructure could be more resilient.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
This solution is scalable.
How are customer service and support?
I have contacted customer support and their response time could be faster.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We migrated to Amazon AWS from the Data Centers.
How was the initial setup?
The installation was straightforward. The installation time varies depending on workloads.
What about the implementation team?
I implemented through an in-house team. We have multiple teams for deployment and maintenance.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
There is no licensing cost.
What other advice do I have?
I would rate Amazon AWS an eight out of ten. I recommend this solution to anyone who wants to start using it.
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 does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
Principal Consultant at High Sierra Consultants
Good elasticity, good performance, and reasonable price
Pros and Cons
- "Macie is great; it is a service that makes recommendations on a data layer for cybersecurity, and its elasticity is good, and I haven't come across any problems with it."
- "One thing that Azure offers that I think is good is Migrate appliance. So, Azure has a migrate appliance that allows you to run against workloads to determine the cost, preparedness, and scalability. I haven't found a similar feature in AWS. That kind of service would be great on AWS too if you could point it to the data center."
What is our primary use case?
I am using it for enterprise warehousing. I am using it for web development, data warehousing, and also for building apps.
I am using its latest version. In terms of deployment, it is a platform as a service.
What is most valuable?
Macie is great. It is a service that makes recommendations on a data layer for cybersecurity. It is a great service.
Its elasticity is good, and I haven't come across any problems with it. So far, everything has been good.
What needs improvement?
One thing that Azure offers that I think is good is Migrate appliance. So, Azure has a migrate appliance that allows you to run against workloads to determine the cost, preparedness, and scalability. I haven't found a similar feature in AWS. That kind of service would be great on AWS too if you could point it to the data center.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using this solution for well over five years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I have not had any performance issues.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It's very easy to scale. Its elasticity is good. If you want to scale up or down, you can. You can scale out. There is no problem at all. That's one of the features that I like about it.
We have less than 50 people who are using this solution.
How are customer service and support?
I've not used their tech support yet.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We didn't use a different solution previously. They're the first.
How was the initial setup?
You need to know what you're doing. I know they're trying to make it easy. Some things are easy. Some things you have to know what you're doing.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
It seems to be reasonable. It's the first one that I've used as a cloud platform, so they've set the benchmark for me, and now, I'm comparing everything else to them.
What other advice do I have?
I would advise others to just plan out what they are looking for in terms of use cases.
I would rate Amazon AWS an eight out of 10.
Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
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