Cloud computing has exploded in adoption over the past decade, transitioning technology infrastructure from on-premises data centers to flexible, agile cloud platforms able to meet modern demands. Leading the charge in cloud is Amazon Web Services (AWS), which pioneered virtually all the foundational infrastructure services making up cloud as we know it today.
AWS launched cloud computing services for outside companies in 2006. From humble beginnings, AWS has enjoyed stratospheric success, now owning over 30% market share in the cloud infrastructure sector and continuing a torrid pace of growth.
As cloud architects and developers know well, AWS provides the most mature, enterprise-ready cloud computing services bar none. But for those still on the fence about cloud or AWS, this article will overview the top 13 reasons AWS stands out from the pack as the #1 choice for your cloud infrastructure, platform, and application needs. Let‘s dive in!
1. Global Infrastructure Presence and Uptime Reliability
With 84 Availability Zones spread across 26 geographic regions around the world (and growing), AWS leverages its massive economy of scale to offer the largest and most reliably performing cloud infrastructure footprint on the planet. AWS promises 99.99% uptime in its service level agreements (SLAs), delivering robust and resilient cloud capacity no matter where your users reside.
Industry leaders like General Electric, Unilever, and Netflix run massive parts of their computing on AWS, trusting and relying on its global system health. In 2021 alone, AWS invested $54 billion in its worldwide infrastructure system, showing its commitment to keeping capacity reliably ahead of ballooning customer demand. Simply put, no provider comes close to the infrastructure investment made by Amazon in AWS.
2. Blazing Pace of Innovation in Cutting-Edge Services
As a cloud pioneer for over 15 years now, AWS continues to churn out new capabilities and services at a breakneck pace. In 2020, AWS announced over 2000 new features and services in domains like serverless computing, Internet of Things (IoT), machine learning, quantum computing, databases, robotics, and more. AWS pushes the envelope into emerging technologies while continuing enhancement of core infrastructure services like compute, storage, and networking.
This furious rate means enterprises building on AWS inherit cutting-edge innovation capabilities without costly research and development or infrastructure modernization programs required behind corporate firewalls. You gain instant access to tomorrow‘s breakthrough tech today.
3. Highly Flexible Pricing and Cost Optimization Models
One major advantage of the cloud lies in converting high capital expenditures (CapEx) into low and flexible operating expenses (OpEx). The elastic, usage-based pricing model of AWS aligns costs precisely to value. For example, features like auto scaling compute instances instantly to match workload demands give unmatched ability to scale up or down to meet needs and control expenses.
AWS offers a variety of purchasing models – on-demand, reserved instances, spot instances, and savings plans – allowing customers to select an approach optimizing their budget and workload patterns. Cost Explorer tools track spending and analyze/recommend areas for better efficiency. Reports show potential savings between 30-72% depending on model flexibility selected. Throughout AWS‘s history, service price reductions happen routinely as efficiency improves from economies of scale.
4. State-of-the-Art Security and Compliance Capabilities
Maintaining rock solid security requires immense operational skills and resources – very difficult to replicate on-premises. By centralizing infrastructure into AWS‘s managed cloud rather than managing thousands of vulnerability points behind the firewall, risks substantially reduce.
AWS earned over 200 compliance certifications in highly-regulated industries like finance and healthcare. The AWS platform implements dozens of native security services managing access permissions, infrastructure hardening, encryption, secrets management, distributed denial of service (DDoS) protection, infrastructure as code, and more.
Defense in depth, least privilege access, and advanced intelligence toolsets outmatch capabilities feasible on-premises. Workloads run inside secure enclaves guarded from risks and threats. Security receives the lionshare of attention at AWS.
5. Nearly Unlimited Scalability and Elasticity
Legacy data centers run into scaling constraints necessitating risky and costly infrastructure upgrades to add capacity. With AWS, flexible consumption of cloud resources means instantly acquiring computing power when demands spike is not only possible but architecturally streamlined.
Auto Scaling Groups dynamically grow and shrink EC2 capacity minimizing manual intervention. Lambda functions instantly trigger to handle event streams then disappear to control costs. If one AWS Availability Zone nears capacity, workloads programmatically shift to another with no downtime. Elasticity to adjust consumption up and down according to customer usage provides startups and enterprises alike greater economics control than ever before.
6. Rich Platform and Partner Ecosystem Expanding Possibilities
The AWS cloud infrastructure offers an abundance of native services, but its partner and marketplace ecosystem stands miles apart from any alternative cloud as well. Over 10,000 Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) provide solutions complementary to AWS across every category from DevOps to Business Intelligence to the Internet of Things.
The AWS Marketplace allows customers to easily purchase, deploy, and manage third-party software. ISV solutions integrate tightly with AWS services to enhance capabilities for machine learning, workload migration, security, and practically everything else. This rich partner landscape paired with continual internal development signifies AWS customers enjoy the broadest, most cutting-edge possibilities in cloud.
7. Hybrid Cloud and Migration Options to Streamline Journeys
As much as AWS provides immense advantages over legacy data centers, not every system suits replatforming right away – or ever. Hybrid cloud describes keeping certain workloads on existing infrastructure while shifting others onto cloud platforms. AWS facilitates hybrid ecosystems better than competitors, with a prescriptive approach avoiding pitfalls endemic to piecemeal transitions.
A spectrum of AWS offerings like Storage Gateway, VMware Cloud on AWS, and Outposts permit legacy infrastructure to operate adjacent cloud-native applications during coordinated stepwise migration and modernization. For AWS customers possessing multi-year digital transformation roadmaps, tactical tools ensure continuity for critical systems while not forestalling cloud progress.
8. Developer Velocity and Software Engineering Agility
Migrating systems to the managed AWS cloud liberates precious time for software engineers and system administrators previously devoted "undifferentiated heavy lifting" like racking servers, pulling cables, and plowing through software configurations. Instead, by leveraging cloud infrastructure platform efficiencies and self-service automation, staff reallocate their talents into building business capabilities vs maintaining plumbing.
Infrastructure as code, one-click provisioning of resources, managed services offloading administrative burdens, autoscaling architectures, and Lambda functions embody some AWS advancements accelerating developer productivity 10X over past norms. Technical personnel drive exponentially greater outcomes unshackled from legacy constraints.
9. Massive Enterprise Customer Base With Major Industry Momentum
In addition to famous digital native companies like Airbnb, Netflix, Reddit, Splunk, and Spotify building their empires atop AWS virtually since inception, today‘s largest global 2000 enterprises run substantial production workloads on AWS too – names like Shell, Goldman Sachs, Volkswagen, Comcast, Verizon, and many more.
Healthcare providers, financial services institutions, oil majors, retailers, media giants, telecoms, and automakers represent just a partial list. With 78% of worldwide cloud infrastructure spend concentrated on AWS as of Q4 2021, all indicators point to customer momentum massing exponentially. Clearly global industry leaders validate AWS as the enterprise cloud standard.
10. Available Expert Support Tailored to Unique Needs
Support stands as a frequent worry for companies migrating business systems into the cloud, fearful of sacrificing responsiveness or quality compared to internal IT teams. Yet AWS recognized this consideration from the start and instituted a "Fanatical Support" culture supplying 24/7/365 consultations tailored to unique customer needs.
Multiple tiers suit coverage requirements and budgets appropriately from developer accounts up to enterprise-scale mission-critical infrastructure, including technical account managers assigned as extensions of internal staff. AWS Support assists across account configuration, security troubleshooting, cost control, infrastructure architecture expansions, and any other aspects facilitating cloud adoption.
11. Long-term Cost Advantages Over On-Premise Solutions
At first glance IaaS/PaaS cloud pricing occasionally worries executives possessing fully depreciated infrastructure or amounts seeming high for temporary projects. However comparing ongoing true costs between cloud and owned infrastructure always reveals substantial savings from AWS efficiency over 3-5 year timeframes. Analyst projections verify cloud migration dropping IT costs by 25-50% for most mid and large-size organizations.
The OpEx approach of cloud platforms circumvents nearly all major capital expenses plaguing legacy data centers like purchasing hardware racks, switches, and servers. Instead, AWS leverages economies of astronomical scale to operates infrastructure at multi-tenant utilization levels impossible elsewhere, passing savings to customers. Its specialization also multiplies efficiencies in power, facilities, depreciation, and operational overhead untenable on corporate premises.
In totality over years, cloud platforms vastly underprice feasible on-premises expenses for delivering comparable services. In cloud cost analysis, organizations must employ long-term total cost of ownership (TCO) modeling spanning 5+ years.
12. Poised to Lead Business Digital Transformation
Beyond quantifying cloud savings and capabilities against legacy IT infrastructure, the multiplicative business potential from pivoting to elastic on-demand architectures calls for consideration too. Cloud adoption represents a seminal point demarcating digital leaders vs laggards across every industry.
Technical teams liberate themselves from operational drudgery by leveraging cloud infrastructures to instead zero in on delivering customer value and next generation offerings setting their business apart. The innately flexible and scalable nature of cloud-based application architectures begets more frequent software iterations, mobile experiences, data leverage, and customer engagements raising the pace of innovation overall.
By selecting AWS as its trusted cloud provider, any ambitious organization ignites capacity to continually expand what is digitally possible, unconstrained by physical infrastructure limitations.
13. The Future Runs Through AWS
Cloud computing penetrated under 15% of total global IT spend as of 2021 by most estimates – meaning the lion‘s share of transformation remains ahead. As the runaway leader in cloud now for over 15 years since pioneering essential IaaS/PaaS categories, AWS sits central to the future of computing technology.
Forthcoming services will push boundaries even further across automation, sustainability, space connectivity, decentralization, Web 3.0, virtual and augmented reality, industrial IoT, neuroscience compute interfaces, quantum encryption, and still inconceivable innovation horizons. AWS generates the flywheel momentum catapulting customers into frontiers not otherwise reachable.
Any technology executive seeking to future-proof their business must ensure it runs on adaptable and infinitely expanding AWS architecture ready for tomorrows innovations arriving soon. The world‘s brightest technologists chart the future within Amazon‘s cloud.
In closing, the public cloud market continues seeing stratospheric growth for years ahead as global enterprises undertake pivotal modernization journeys. For ambitious organizations seeking maximum innovation velocity, customer experience quality, and future-forward business positioning, AWS delivers an overwhelming array of technical and strategic advantages unmatched in the ecosystem.
Across infrastructure scale, services capability, pricing flexibility, security competence, computing elasticity, platform richness, hybrid optionality, organizational agility, enterprise credibility, forward thinking, and sustained market dominance – AWS stands alone as the definitive cloud industry leader for technologists and customers alike. Any cloud migration initiative or modern application endeavor must have AWS residing squarely atop the evaluation list for where to build for lasting success.
