Amazon AWS is good in terms of deployment and user experience. Their certificate management and load balancer are also good features.
Solutions Architect at a financial services firm with 1,001-5,000 employees
Good in terms of deployment and user experience
Pros and Cons
- "Amazon AWS is good in terms of deployment and user experience. Their certificate management and load balancer are also good features."
- "The sorting model in AWS is a little bit complicated. When you are going through any component, you can get some surprising results."
What is most valuable?
What needs improvement?
The sorting model in AWS is a little bit complicated. When you are going through any component, you can get some surprising results.
For how long have I used the solution?
I've been using AWS for more than two years.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Scalability is something that people are looking for when they choose Amazon AWS. I like that it integrates well with IBM Resilient, which is like a serverless map. We have more than 5,000 employees in our organization.
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How are customer service and support?
Amazon support is good.
How was the initial setup?
Setting up AWS was straightforward. It only took around 20 minutes. We used about five to 10 team members for deployment. For maintenance, we have an architect and some RDS specialists.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Amazon AWS could have more options and transparency in its pricing model. You need in-depth knowledge to adopt AWS. So someone without that knowledge base might not understand all of the costs associated with AWS.
What other advice do I have?
I rate Amazon AWS nine out of 10. I would definitely recommend it 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: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Director, Tools Engineering & Security, Data Platform
Reliable, easy to scale, easy to set up, and the support is responsive
Pros and Cons
- "It scales extremely well."
- "Price can always be cheaper."
What is our primary use case?
Our use cases are essentially infrastructure provisioning for backend services. We also use it for environment automation.
We use it for CIPD. So, this is like AWS Beanstalk. We use it for infrastructure provisioning, auto-scaling some of the container services as well, block storage, such as S3.
What is most valuable?
It's a suite of services. There is no one thing that you can pinpoint and say that this is the most valuable.
AWS definitely works for us.
What needs improvement?
There are some subjective pain points, but we are pretty satisfied.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using this solution for six or seven years.
We are not exactly using the latest version. We are using what Amazon rolls out.
It's software or infrastructure as a service, so we use what Amazon has.
We don' use the beta products and try to stay away from them. We only use what is generally available.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It's a stable solution. It's definitely reliable, we have run enough critical business services on it.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It scales extremely well. Most things are inbuilt. It is easy to scale vertically and horizontally.
How are customer service and technical support?
It also functions on a tiering level, and that is based on what kind of customer you are.
Internally, there is some tiering on which they respond to tickets.
Overall the customer service support is pretty comfortable.
They usually respond and resolve tickets fairly quickly.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is fairly straightforward.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
They have different pricing models for each suite of services. For example, if you are with EC2; E2 has spot instances and EC2 has on instances. You can pay upfront or you can reserve an instance.
You can pay upfront or you can on an annual basis for certain machines, and you can keep them up which you get quite a competitive discount.
You can take spot instances, as in certain predefined instances, that you can spin up when you need it, but those ten to be expensive because it's ad-hoc.
You can also just go with the normal EC2 instances that are charged at the usual pricing rate.
For us, it's use-case specific and we move between all three pricing options.
Price can always be cheaper.
What other advice do I have?
As a customer, I would wholeheartedly recommend this solution to others.
From our use cases and standards, most of the things are pretty much covered, so we're happy.
I've been pretty happy with my experience with AWS. I would rate Amazon AWS a solid nine out of ten.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
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Enterprise architect at a computer software company with 201-500 employees
Stable with good native tools and a relatively easy initial setup
Pros and Cons
- "The solution has very good Lambda functions within AWS."
- "The pricing could be more competitive."
What is our primary use case?
We primarily use the solution for our partner.
We are using it for moving all the banking and insurance domains from on-premises systems to the cloud platform, which is managed by services. It is right from data integration, data inception to data processing, to advanced visualization and analytics. We are also using the AI and machine learning aspects as well.
What is most valuable?
We have been using the data ingestion.
There are native tools which are AWS Glue, which we are using for data integration.
We also use the Spark and Python-based integration which are both very good.
The solution has very good Lambda functions within AWS.
We also use AWS Redshift for data modeling along with the integration with Snowflake.
The solution is very stable.
The scalability is excellent.
We've found the initial setup to be quite simple and straightforward.
Technical support is pretty good.
What needs improvement?
The pricing could be more competitive.
There need better integration tools whereby you could have widgets. It already technically has this, however, if they had widgets that could help with the journey from an on-premises legacy database management system, that would be ideal. There should be some accelerators that can convert and automate data pipelines into AWS so that users don't have to start from scratch.
Basically, if we had accelerators and tools that can help fast track and leverage existing data schemas, models, and then also, data pipelines that are already set up, it would help items to be quickly migrated rather than doing everything from scratch on the cloud.
For how long have I used the solution?
We've used the solution for a couple of years. It's been a while.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The stability of the solution is very good. The product does not have any bugs or glitches. It doesn't crash or freeze. It's reliable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The solution is the number one cloud product. It is extremely salable. A company shouldn't have any trouble expanding it.
From a user perspective, I would say from accounts, we are primarily into banking and insurance. We have around four to five of our banking accounts using it. They are a mid-scale bank.
We do plan to continue using the product.
How are customer service and technical support?
Technical support is good. Overall, they are the number one cloud provider and they have an overall very high market capitalization. The support they have on offer is very good. We're satisfied with the level of service they offer.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We have also used the Azure platform as well.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is easy. It's not overly complex. The deployment depends, however, it could take a few hours to maybe a day, as it is platform and software as a service. It is all managed by AWS. The installation and management require a bare minimum configuration.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The cost structure could be better. It needs to be more transparent. After COVID, it is competing directly with Azure - which is a bit more of a cost-effective option. It's also competing directly with Google. If they were cheaper, they would be much more competitive in the space.
From a licensing perspective, the cost of ownership is based on usage.
What other advice do I have?
We are consultants.
We are using the latest version of the solution. I cannot recall the exact version number at this time.
I'd rate the solution at a nine out of ten. We've enjoyed its capabilities so far.
I would recommend this solution to other companies and organizations.
There's a lot of due diligence which happens before organizations choose cloud solutions and then, of course, it needs to fit into the scenario. There is a cost-benefit analysis that has to be performed. It's a good idea to compare it to other platforms as well. Companies need to make sure it factors in the strategic landscape and the tools and technologies that the organization already has. If clients need assistance, we do participate in those strategic initiatives.
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: Partner
Chief Operating Officer at FarEye Digital Logistics
Solid solution that offers a wide variety of features
Pros and Cons
- "The main feature that I like the most is the variety of solutions that it provides. It provides some analysis, business information and more. It provides a wide variety of services."
- "One area that could be improved is in data management. They could improve on the data side. For example, I see others with better cloud services and larger data computing capabilities."
What is our primary use case?
It is on the public cloud and we are using it for multiple purposes, including data storage and production.
What is most valuable?
The main feature that I like the most is the variety of solutions that it provides. It provides some analysis, business information and more. It provides a wide variety of services.
What needs improvement?
One area that could be improved is in data management. They could improve on the data side. For example, I see others with better cloud services and larger data computing capabilities.
For how long have I used the solution?
We have been using Amazon AWS around four or five years now.
We use it as a customer.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I think the scalability on the computer side is good, not too much of a challenge. It is sometimes on the database side where we encounter challenges on the scalability. Sometimes it is not easy to scale beyond that point and we get a scalability error on the computer.
We have around 10 people working on it who do the maintenance, automation, and monitoring.
How are customer service and technical support?
I would say support is average.
A lot of times I would prefer a better turnaround time in terms of the response we're getting, it should be faster. Often we have to wait a long time before the problem is solved. So it is generally a very poor product resolution.
How was the initial setup?
My initial setup was quite straightforward.
What about the implementation team?
I implemented it myself with one other person.
What other advice do I have?
I would say to somebody who is moving to the cloud that it is very easy to start with. At the same time it is also important to make sure they have a very strong partner or a very strong team in-house.
On a scale of one to ten, I would rate Amazon AWS an eight on product and technology. But overall I would rate them seven if I include services and support.
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: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Chief Technology Architect - Agile/Devops Evangelist at Sandz Solutions
Error-free experience that is really well-tested
Pros and Cons
- "The experience with Amazon AWS is error-free. That was also, of course, something that I really appreciate. That means it's really well-tested and, as published or as declared."
- "I'm just bugged by the charges that I'm not really able to manage."
What is most valuable?
The experience with Amazon AWS is error-free. That was also, of course, something that I really appreciate. That means it's really well-tested and, as published or as declared. So it works as-is. I think the interfaces are really quite usable and something that I think is user friendly.
What needs improvement?
I'm just bugged by the charges that I'm not really able to manage. If there is so much little stuff, that I enabled from time to time, then I get lost. And then I tend to forget about that. It would be better if there was a corresponding notification as well. I would like to see a notification indicating you have not used this instance. You might want to turn it off so as not to incur the cost or something like that. But because most of my usage is charged to my credit card. It's disappointing and frustrating at times. If they could provide some kind of entry point. Something similar to WordPress where small businesses could have an easy way to come up with a site that could behosted immediately.
For how long have I used the solution?
My access to Amazon AWS is not so deep. I just set up VPCs and clusters or running an instance
How are customer service and technical support?
I would say I'm quite satisfied. They're very pleasant to talk to and very helpful.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I would say that the Microsoft Azure interface is a lot slicker. But the last time I use it was around 2018. So comparing the interfaces in the dashboard views I think the Azure has the edge.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup was a little bit challenging because understandably it also tends to protect the user in terms of the security, both the user and the system. So if I understand and appreciate that level of complexity in setting how to access it, setting up the identities, and then once you get through it, I think the interfaces are really quite usable and something that I think is user friendly.
What other advice do I have?
I would certainly recommend Amazon AWS. It's very useful because you can easily try out your compute requirements, whatever storage or whatever other services that you may want. I would rate Amazon AWS at an eight on a scale 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: Reseller
Google Cloud Solutions Architect at a tech services company with 201-500 employees
We use this tool to adopt a cloud strategy.
Pros and Cons
- "Elasticity has always been AWS's mandate. The flexibility of their platform from a systems perspective lives up to its claims."
- "The networking models used in AWS, while functional, do have room for improvement. This is especially the fact, considering that they are built/presented from a systems perspective."
How has it helped my organization?
I have been providing consulting services around the cloud solution for the past four to five years, during which AWS was the market leader and the de facto cloud service. AWS definitely helped me to help my customers adopt a cloud strategy smoothly and in a timely manner.
What is most valuable?
Elasticity has always been AWS's mandate. The flexibility of their platform from a systems perspective lives up to its claims.
What needs improvement?
- I would have hoped that their networking model was a little more network oriented and flexible, as is their systems model.
- The networking models used in AWS, while functional, do have room for improvement. This is especially the fact, considering that they are built/presented from a systems perspective.
- More granular control of networking, as well as a richer set of networking features, could really go a long way in building globally scalable infrastructures.
- The Identity and Access Management (IAM) authentication model could use some work as well. The fact that it isn't very straightforward/streamlined to authenticate applications that are not running on AWS infrastructure can complicate things when trying to use different (non-AWS) environments for specific activities. A simple and common example of this is working in a development environment, and having code that relies on interacting with AWS services. Being forced to store sensitive key information in your codebase isn't a very secure manner of operations.
- Given the recent surge of adoption and interest in containers and container orchestration, Amazon ECS is seen as a proprietary Amazon service. This makes it impossible to use Amazon ECS on other platforms, whether for development purposes, or for rolling out multi-cloud types of deployments. If you use an alternative, such as Kubernetes, this can easily be configured and ported to any environment, as it is an open-source project.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I have not had any issues with stability on AWS. However, it is worth noting that they did have uptime issues in the past. While there weren't many issues, they still did happen.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The only issue that I faced with scalability was due to the soft limitations that AWS applies on the allowed number of resources, e.g., the number of VPCs per account, the number of EIPs per VPC, etc.
How are customer service and technical support?
I do not have much experience working with AWS's technical support. However, their forums are vast and pretty full of useful information.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
AWS was sort of the first of its kind, so I did not use a different solution previously. However, today I find myself a lot more invested in the Google Cloud Platform, as oppose to AWS.
How was the initial setup?
It was relatively straightforward to install. I have read reviews of others facing issues with getting their accounts approved. However, I never faced such issues.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Be careful with your consumption, especially when you are testing things. Costs can creep up on you relatively fast, without even noticing.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
As mentioned earlier, since AWS was the first of its kind, I didn't really have many other options at the time. I remember one of the other players at the time was Rackspace, but they were considerably more expensive than AWS.
What other advice do I have?
Picking a cloud platform is not a process that should be taken for granted. The leading cloud service providers today each have their pros and cons. It's best that you assess your options, and start with the cloud platform that best suits your needs. After that, your next step would be to start considering a multi-cloud strategy.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
CTO at a healthcare company with 51-200 employees
The technical support was a 7 on a scale of 1-10, but dynamic usage and flexibility.
What is most valuable?
Dynamic usage and flexibility in choosing configurations. Also the fact that Amazon’s security team is much larger than anything I could ever assemble gives me reliance that this run time environment is going to be more secure than anything I can deploy.
How has it helped my organization?
I needed to stand up a prototype server that did not conform to my corporate IT standards. By using AWS I was able to stand up my prototype in a few hours, run my demo and be done.
What needs improvement?
The connection between the billing console and the management console is not obvious so shutting down a machine was hard to find initially and resulted in excess billing.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using this solution for 5 years.
What was my experience with deployment of the solution?
No issues with deployment.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
No issues with stability.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
No issues with scalability.
How are customer service and technical support?
Customer Service: Customer service was pretty good. It was responsive but it took 2-3 iterations on the billing/Management issue before they understood the problem I ran into.Technical Support: The technical support was a 7 on a scale of 1-20
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I have used Amazon Elastic Beanstalk and Windows Azure. My primary choice to use AWS was because the prototype server stack was specified as an AMI (Amazon Machine Image).
How was the initial setup?
If you have not used AWS, its not as straightforward as it could be to choose what stack configuration a particular AMI requires before loading it. OTOH the “Amazon Web Service Pricing Calculator” is currently the gold standard for cloud vendors.
What about the implementation team?
We implemented in-house.
What was our ROI?
Not applicable, the ROI came from the agility to quickly standup the environment I needed.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Approximately $200/mo.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
I have used Azure, and Horuko.
What other advice do I have?
Use the AWS pricing calculator to understand how the services fit together.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Director of Information Systems Engineer / CIO at Azienda ULSS 2 Marca Trevigiana
Provides a good value for money, and is highly scalable and stable
Pros and Cons
- "Its scalability is powerful. We are providing services for people to schedule an appointment for the vaccine and for COVID testing to see whether they are positive or negative. In one night, we can have 240,000 people in one minute to schedule an appointment. I am very happy with the scalability."
- "The dashboard can be improved a little bit to provide more information."
What is our primary use case?
We are using AWS for storage for the database server and data.
What is most valuable?
Its scalability is powerful. We are providing services for people to schedule an appointment for the vaccine and for COVID testing to see whether they are positive or negative. In one night, we can have 240,000 people in one minute to schedule an appointment. I am very happy with the scalability.
What needs improvement?
The dashboard can be improved a little bit to provide more information.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using this solution for more than one year.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
We open the services at midnight, and we have many people taking our services, and it has been very stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Its scalability is wonderful. It is suitable for enterprises.
How are customer service and support?
I don't directly take support from Amazon. We have a company for technical support, and their suggestion was great. The technical sample that they gave was very easy. It helped to resolve the problem quickly.
How was the initial setup?
It was very easy.
What about the implementation team?
I did it myself.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
It is not the cheapest one, but there is a good ratio between the quality of service and the pricing. Its price is good for me.
What other advice do I have?
I would recommend this solution. I would rate it a nine out of 10.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: partner
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