AWS Hosting
Amazon Web Services (AWS) is the world’s largest cloud computing platform, made up of over 200 different cloud data services that are housed in data centers around the globe. AWS’s three main products are Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2), Glacier (a virtual machine service), and Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3). AWS accounts for around 13% of Amazon’s total revenue and is used by prominent companies such as Netflix and Facebook/Meta, as well as organizations of all sizes in industry, non-profit sectors, and governmental organizations. The size and scope of AWS makes them a reliable and affordable option for cloud hosting, offering a wide range of hosting options that are scalable and flexibly priced. AWS website solutions include:
Simple website hosting. Simple websites consist of a single web server running either Content Management System (CMS), such as WordPress, an eCommerce application, like Magento, or a development stack, like LAMP1. Simple websites are ideal for low to medium trafficked sites with multiple authors and frequent content changes. Simple websites are best for: websites built with common applications, websites built on popular development stacks, websites that are unlikely to scale beyond 5 servers, customers who want to manage their own web server and resources, and customers who want one console to manage their web server, DNS, and networking.
Single page web app hosting. Single page apps are static web apps that only require a single load in a web browser. Subsequent actions by the user are facilitated through HTML, JavaScript, and CSS, and are pre-loaded in the browser. Single page apps are best for: websites built with Single page app frameworks, websites built with static site generators, progressive web apps (PWAs), websites that do not contain server-side scripting, and websites that have serverless backends.
Enterprise web hosting. Enterprise websites include popular marketing and media sites, as well as social, travel, and other websites that are application-heavy. Enterprise websites use multiple AWS services and may span multiple data centers. Enterprise web hosting is best for: websites that use multiple web servers across two or more data centers, websites that need to scale, websites that require sustained high CPU utilization, and customers who need maximum control and flexibility for their web server configuration and administration.
Some different types of AWS hosting services include:
- S3 for simple website hosting
- AWS Amplify for single page web app hosting
- Amazon Lightsail for simple websites built with common application like WordPress, Magento, or LAMP
- Enterprise Web Hosting for application-heavy websites that expect high levels of traffic and need support for complex applications
- Application hosting for business who need hosting for internet-based products like mobile applications and software-as-a-service (SaaS) products
1 AWS, 2022, “Web Hosting”