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Manager Project Management at a computer software company with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Feature-rich, flexible, simple to install, and easy to use
Pros and Cons
  • "It scales well and is flexible."
  • "As a result of the competency, I believe that most people are now leaning toward Azure rather than AWS."

What is our primary use case?

We use Amazon AWS for provisioning and the majority of our deployments.

We support and provide services for our clients who lean towards using AWS.

What is most valuable?

Amazon AWS is easy to use.

It scales well and is flexible.

When compared to Google Cloud Platform or Microsoft Azure, it has almost all of the features.

What needs improvement?

As a result of the competency, I believe that most people are now leaning toward Azure rather than AWS. That is also according to Gartner's forecast, more people are turning to Microsoft Azure.

The price could be better.

For how long have I used the solution?

We have been using Amazon AWS for more than three years.

We are always using the latest version.

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March 2025
Learn what your peers think about Amazon AWS. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: March 2025.
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What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Amazon AWS is a stable solution.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It is a scalable product.

When the number of users increases, the bandwidth automatically increases, and when the number of users decreases, the bandwidth decreases.

We have a large organization with over 3,500 users, and more than 60 customers.

Our organization has an AWS center of excellence that increases our usage.

How are customer service and support?

I personally have not contacted technical support. 

We contact our own center of excellence team, who would then contact the AWS support team for any information we required. That is the order in which we must proceed. It's the hierarchy that we must adhere to.

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

I am also, familiar with Splunk.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is straightforward.

The installation is done through the AWS Cloud and is so simple that it only took me 15 minutes to create instances, possibly even less than 10 minutes.

We have 200 engineers who are responsible for both the development tasks and the maintenance.

What about the implementation team?

I was able to complete the installation myself.

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

When compared to GCP, Google, or Azure, the price could be lower.

As a company and a platinum sponsor, we know exactly where management will make a decision on getting the best price for us.

A monthly fee is a good option for a startup company or an individual, and it is paid yearly for larger organizations.

What other advice do I have?

I would recommend this solution to others because I am not familiar with Azure and only have experience with AWS.

We don't have any issues with this product. I would rate Amazon AWS a ten out of ten.

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
PeerSpot user
Director of Platform and Information Security at Brace Software
Real User
Perfect for startups and easy to implement but offers a confusing amount of tools
Pros and Cons
  • "The solution offers a low footprint. We don't have to come up with a data center ourselves. We basically don't have to own any hardware. We just rent a slice of their platform and we have everything we need."
  • "They should really consolidate and make things simpler rather than offer you hundreds of random options. The way everything is arranged really forces users to figure out everything on their own and then, on top of that, to calculate the total costs. There's an infinite number of combinations even just with cost calculations. It's just too much."

What is our primary use case?

We're building an application and host on Amazon. We are a startup company, so it's in a very early development stage. We're trying to build a particular application for multiple customers. The idea is if you have a VPC for each customer you can segregate each client with their own isolated environment. That's what we're building. We're going to build one application that can be personalized for each client. 

How has it helped my organization?

The fact that we as a startup don't have to invest in expensive hardware and a place to house it is very helpful for our small business. It saves us money in the long run in overhead costs and allows us to stay streamlined. There's no heavy investment on the outset and we're really just renting the exact amount of what we need.

What is most valuable?

AWS is a cloud platform. There are hundreds of tools within it. The cloud handles the updates so we never have to worry about looking for the latest version of the solution.

The solution offers a low footprint. We don't have to come up with a data center ourselves. We basically don't have to own any hardware. We just rent a slice of their platform and we have everything we need.

What needs improvement?

The biggest area for improvement is the fact that there are a vast amount of tools. The best way to describe it is this: you have lots of Lego pieces, hundreds of Lego pieces, but they all do something specific. However, it's very difficult to understand the purpose of these tools, how are they fit into our environment, our design ideas, etc. To assemble all of these tools, to make them fit into the architectural vision of the company, is very difficult. This is especially true for a startup that doesn't have unlimited resources for research and study. We cannot comprehend the vast amount of information that Amazon produces.

The pricing is very confusing.  

They should really consolidate and make things simpler rather than offer you hundreds of random options. The way everything is arranged really forces users to figure out everything on their own and then, on top of that, to calculate the total costs. There's an infinite number of combinations even just with cost calculations. It's too much. 

For how long have I used the solution?

While the company has been around for three years and has used the solution since its inception, I have only worked here for three months and have a total of three months of experience with the solution.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The solution is very stable. AWS is quite reliable and we haven't had issues. There haven't been bugs, glitches, or crashes. It works well and as expected.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

AWS is extremely scalable. It's designed to be. The sky really is the limit. Users and organizations can expand as much as they like.

We're a small company right now. We're still in the startup phase. We have about 20 people at the moment. We have a dozen developers directly on it now. That said, you probably only need two people for development and maintenance.

We do plan to expand in the future.

How are customer service and technical support?

Personally I haven't used their support yet. I cannot give more info. I've only been at the company for three months and haven't faced any issues that required me to reach out to technical support.

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

We are just a startup so the company is young. The founders made the choice to use the database and they've used it since day one. 

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is both really straightforward and complex. At first, it's simple. However, as you get deeper into the solution and work in all kinds of variations or all kinds of scenarios, things get really complex. The more you have to consider the more complicated it can get. The complexities multiple quickly.

We use Terraform to provision the best infrastructure, which makes our platform really easy to manage in terms of our implementation strategy.

What about the implementation team?

We handled the implementation ourselves. We didn't need to hire on an integrator or consultant to assist us.

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

The calculating of costs is quite difficult. There are all kinds of variables to consider and it's all very unclear.

It's my understanding that our company is charged a few hundred dollars on a monthly basis.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

My understanding is that this product was used from day one. I don't think other options were considered. However, I was not at the company when AWS was implemented.

What other advice do I have?

We're a startup company. It's a very small company with only 20 people. Everything we use is cloud-based. We're simply a customer of AWS. We don't have a special relationship with the company.

I'd warn others considering using the solution that the environment is vast and complex, and a company will need a lot of tools at their disposal for research and to understand the product. If there are people within the organization who already have experience with the architecture or with similar solutions within the AWS environment, that will help make implementation successful. It's important to bring people who have previous AWS architecture experience into the organization.

I'd rate the solution seven out of ten. It does do everything we need it to do, however, as a small company, figuring it out is a big effort. Making it more streamlined or straightforward in the future would probably give it higher marks.

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.
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Amazon AWS
March 2025
Learn what your peers think about Amazon AWS. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: March 2025.
842,145 professionals have used our research since 2012.
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. 

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 technical 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
Kublai Gomez - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Software Engineer at Userlytics Corporation
Real User
Top 10
The product has an all-encompassing ecosystem, but the pricing should be improved
Pros and Cons
  • "The ecosystem offered by the product has almost everything."
  • "The initial setup is not easy at all."

What is our primary use case?

The use cases depend on the projects. The project that I am currently working on uses Rekognition heavily. It also uses S3 and EC2. My previous project was using it for the text-to-speech feature.

What is most valuable?

The ecosystem offered by the product has almost everything. A couple of weeks ago, I was trying to build a server with RabbitMQ for real-time communication in an environment. Amazon already has a service called Amazon MQ. We don’t need to configure the server ourselves because we already have one integrated into the ecosystem. It’s easy to install the server in our system. We can run it in ten minutes instead of waiting three to four days.

What needs improvement?

The initial setup is not easy at all.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using the solution for six to seven years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The solution is stable. I never had any issues with Amazon. It works all the time, 24/7.

How are customer service and support?

I have contacted support. It was just a couple of calls. We weren’t able to reach the server. There was some issue at the country level in Iceland. The problem was not with Amazon specifically.

How was the initial setup?

We will have to learn to setup the tool. Someone with no experience would not be able to do it. In some companies, there is a person that works only with Amazon. The person will be profiling the company to work with the service center infrastructure inside Amazon.

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

The solution should improve the pricing. The area that I work for is expensive. The product is cheap when we start using it. It provides AWS Free Tier. However, it is not the same when you work continuously with Amazon. We end up paying a lot at the end of every month. 

The pricing depends on the traffic because they charge by the traffic. They do not charge us based on servers. The price also depends on the services we use. It would be different if we used S3.

What other advice do I have?

The product is not the best option for a small company. If someone is trying to use Amazon for the first time and already has an NPP running, they can use it. If someone has used Amazon, they would already know what they are going to deal with. The cost is a concern for me. Some people are trying to leave Amazon and are searching for other options. Overall, I rate the solution a seven out of ten.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Head of Implementation and Security at a financial services firm with 1-10 employees
Real User
It makes deployment and management of infrastructure easier
Pros and Cons
  • "AWS's containerization is the most useful feature for us."
  • "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."

What is our primary use case?

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. 

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.

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: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Cloud Architect at a tech services company with 10,001+ employees
Real User
The most valuable feature is the backup ability
Pros and Cons
  • "The most valuable feature is the backup ability. Most people are used to one type of backup solution that they're using, but most of these solutions have features that make it difficult to transfer to the cloud. I know that Veeam now gives people the opportunity to backup some on-premises solutions to the cloud. This feature is something that a lot of people are looking for."
  • "I'm not an expert on the product, but if I had to suggest one improvement, I know a feature that would allow a person to backup his on-premise solution to the cloud directly with one click would be useful. This solution should be agnostic because sometimes a product that was backed up with Veeam is highly compatible with Commvault. I think it would be better if these backup features were agnostic. Viewing a build could also be improved. It's not easy to follow up on your consumption and see how much you're paying and how much you will be paying. Viewing the build could be more clear."

What is our primary use case?

One of the most common use cases is people using the solution for hosting. Many people use it to backup their on-premises solution to the cloud. This is the most common use case I know of. 

What is most valuable?

The most valuable feature is the backup ability. Most people are used to one type of backup solution that they're using, but most of these solutions have features that make it difficult to transfer to the cloud. I know that Veeam now gives people the opportunity to backup some on-premises solutions to the cloud. This feature is something that a lot of people are looking for. 

What needs improvement?

I'm not an expert on the product, but if I had to suggest one improvement, I know a feature that would allow a person to back up his on-premise solution to the cloud directly with one click would be useful. This solution should be agnostic because sometimes a product that was backed up with Veeam is highly compatible with Commvault. I think it would be better if these backup features were agnostic. 

Viewing a build could also be improved. It's not easy to follow up on your consumption and see how much you're paying and how much you will be paying. Viewing the build could be more clear. 

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been working with Amazon AWS for three years. 

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

This solution is stable. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

This solution is scalable. 

How are customer service and support?

Two years ago, I was working on proofs of concept and I got in touch with their support. It was okay and they handled it. 

How was the initial setup?

The setup process was quite simple. 

What about the implementation team?

My company implemented through an in-house team. My company also provides the maintenance for this product. 

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

Amazon AWS is on the cheaper side, as their pricing is more competitive. There are no additional costs besides the license. However, Azure sells Microsoft licenses, so they have an advantage. 

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

I was aware of Google Cloud and Microsoft Cloud, but I chose Amazon because they have better products and more features. At the moment, Amazon is the leader in everything. 

What other advice do I have?

I recommend trying Amazon AWS. You have nothing to be afraid of, as long as you're clear that you can handle your build. 

This product is suitable for any company, whether small, medium, or large. 

I would rate Amazon AWS an eight out of ten, just because there's always room for improvement. 

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
PeerSpot user
Solution Architect at a tech vendor with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Top 5Leaderboard
Easy to use, manage and crucial for scaling our resources effortlessly
Pros and Cons
  • "AWS's security model, including IAM or security groups, has contributed to our organization's compliance. It manages authentication, permissions, and overall security posture, which helps us maintain compliance."
  • "Faster API response times and an improved console experience would be better. Enhanced performance across APIs and the console would streamline our workflows."

What is our primary use case?

I generally EC2 workloads. We use it to host our applications and provide our software service on the cloud. We integrate with EKS (Elastic Kubernetes Service) to manage containerized applications.

EKS helps us manage our containerized applications on AWS. We use various AWS services for different functionalities, such as computing services, database storage, content delivery, etc.

How has it helped my organization?

AWS's security model, including IAM or security groups, has contributed to our organization's compliance. It manages authentication, permissions, and overall security posture, which helps us maintain compliance.

AWS has made our lives much easier. It simplifies workload management and operations.  

What is most valuable?

The cloud-based nature of AWS is crucial for scaling our resources effortlessly. It's a key reason we chose AWS.

We find EKS particularly helpful for its ease of use and management of containerized applications.

What needs improvement?

Faster API response times and an improved console experience would be better. Enhanced performance across APIs and the console would streamline our workflows.

In future releases, improved compatibility and minimal downtime during upgrades would be significant enhancements.  

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using it for seven years. 

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

I would rate the stability a nine out of ten. It's generally very reliable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

I would rate the scalability a ten out of ten. No problem with scaling this product.

There are around 300 end users in my company using this solution. 

How are customer service and support?

AWS technical support is good in general.  

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

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

The features, quality, and support are likely comparable to other products.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is simple. 

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

Pricing definitely isn't high; I would rate the pricing a five out of ten, with ten being expensive. 

AWS pricing is quite competitive. AWS is cost-effective because it saves time. Faster deployments and testing make it very valuable. Pricing isn't the main thing; it's more about getting things done efficiently. Then, engineers can discover additional savings within AWS itself.

So, it's more flexible. We save a lot of time thanks to AWS

What other advice do I have?

Overall, I would rate the solution an eight out of ten. 

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Hybrid Cloud
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
SundaresanSubramanyan - PeerSpot reviewer
Founder and Managing Director at Analytic Brains Technologies Private Limited
Real User
Quick deployment and offers automated vulnerability audits, ensuring system security
Pros and Cons
  • "Security, quick deployment, and scalability are the top three features for me."
  • "Pricing is the one feature everyone wants AWS to improve."

What is our primary use case?

It is primarily for cloud hosting. If you're developing a solution for a customer who wants it on the cloud, then AWS and Microsoft Azure are two major choices. There are other providers too, but AWS is quite user-friendly.

We use AWS for scalable cloud hosting and computing services. We store all our customer data on Amazon EC2 Instances.

How has it helped my organization?

We haven't had any security problems, and Amazon offers automated vulnerability audits. This helps us test our solutions for vulnerabilities and show customers that our systems are secure.

What is most valuable?

Security, quick deployment, and scalability are the top three features for me.

What needs improvement?

Like every other customer, I'd suggest pricing is the one feature everyone wants AWS to improve. 

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using it for five years. 

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It is a stable solution. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It is a scalable solution. We've worked with about five customers so far. 

How are customer service and support?

We haven't needed technical support.

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

Sometimes, customers ask for AWS solutions, but we offer choices based on their needs. Price and geographical preferences can influence their decision. Sometimes, the customers can go for a cheaper product.  We don't force them, but we make recommendations.

How was the initial setup?

The quickest way to set it up is the most beneficial feature. We can set up resources quickly and scale them as needed, starting small and growing as requirements increase. That's very helpful. It saves us a lot of time. 

The initial setup is straightforward if you spend some time learning it. They're improving the user interface, which helps.

What about the implementation team?

My team takes care of the implementation. They find it easy to deploy. We haven't faced any issues so far.

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

It's not very pricey, but it could be cheaper. There are other options like GoDaddy and HostGator.

There are various options, and some can be cheaper than paying a full license.

What other advice do I have?

Read the documentation carefully before starting. Preparation saves time in the long run. For example, the ease of integrating different AWS services depends on your expertise.

Overall, I would rate the solution an eight out of ten. 

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Amazon AWS Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.
Updated: March 2025
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Amazon AWS Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.