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David Jothidoss - PeerSpot reviewer
Manager - Solution Architecture at a financial services firm with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Top 5
A scalable and reasonably priced solution that is easy to use and has a high availability
Pros and Cons
  • "The product is easy to use."
  • "IAM must be made simple and straightforward."

What is most valuable?

The product is easy to use. Its availability and support are its biggest strengths.

What needs improvement?

IAM must be made simple and straightforward. It is a little bit complicated compared to GCP.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using the solution for three to four years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The product is stable.

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March 2025
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What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The product is scalable.

How are customer service and support?

My company had signed up for professional support. We did not have any issues with support. It would be really tough to reach out to the support team on a personal level. For personal users, I rate the support a three to four out of ten. For professional users, I rate it a nine out of ten.

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

We are also using Google Cloud Platform. The choice of the product depends on people’s familiarity and their inclination toward using a certain product.

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

The tool’s pricing is reasonable.

What other advice do I have?

I would recommend the solution. Overall, I rate the product a ten out of ten.

Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Reseller
PeerSpot user
FlorianPriede - PeerSpot reviewer
Technical Account Manager Premier Services at Hyland
Real User
Scalable, easy to deploy, and makes a lot of sense if you are growing
Pros and Cons
  • "Scalability is one of the biggest benefits we have."
  • "We have a very good approach internally with what we have developed. It involved overcoming some hurdles regarding the single point of truth or single point of configuration, which is sometimes not that easy for AWS. There are dashboards and you have your web service, but bringing all these together and orchestrating is sometimes quite difficult."

What is our primary use case?

We're a native AWS customer and a provider as well. We have multiple solutions running in there, and we are also doing infrastructure as a code and infrastructure as a service. For example, we can offer you lower prices than the price that you would pay for an AWS instance because we are an official partner of Amazon. So, we are taking all the advantages of what we currently have with AWS. 

It is being used for ECM. In terms of deployment, from an AWS perspective, it is partly self-developed based on Terraform, and we are also using services like S3, S9, and all the things we have in AWS for DNS, but it is highly automated. When a customer comes in and says that they need an instance clustered with certain options and a certain amount of service, it's usually firing up one line of code, and then everything gets set up, including the infrastructure.

We're working with its newer version.

What is most valuable?

Scalability is one of the biggest benefits we have.

What needs improvement?

We have a very good approach internally with what we have developed. It involved overcoming some hurdles regarding the single point of truth or single point of configuration, which is sometimes not that easy for AWS. There are dashboards and you have your web service, but bringing all these together and orchestrating is sometimes quite difficult.

For how long have I used the solution?

My estimate is six years, but it might be way earlier. We ramped up way early with AWS on the market and developed together with them.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It is very scalable. Our customers are from every corner you can imagine. There is no specific type of customers we are serving.

How are customer service and support?

We have a direct relationship with AWS. We are not running with the usual support with AWS. We have other possibilities and are directly integrated. 

How was the initial setup?

It is easy. With our solution, it's really a piece of cake. Even my seven-year-old would be able to set up a cluster with high availability, as long as I tell her what to enter.

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

It is quite expensive in my very personal opinion. Going on-prem in a data center is, for sure, not as expensive as going to AWS, but when it comes to a point where you are raising and growing, it simply makes a lot of sense to stay in AWS. It is awesome in that way. I am not aware of any extra costs.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

Azure is something that we are currently looking into as a second option, but there are no concrete actions planned.

What other advice do I have?

It boils down to two points. The first point would be to have correct planning. You need to know what you want to do and you need to be familiar with what you can do in AWS. The second very important point is that you need very stable and very good monitoring of your AWS instances. This is mandatory because if you fire up a very expensive environment and forget it over weeks, you need to pay for that. I've seen a lot of companies struggling to get an overview of all these AWS machines. It starts by tagging and so on.

I would rate it 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
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.
KamleshPant - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Software Architect at USEReady
MSP
Top 5Leaderboard
It covers a lot of services, including computing, networking, storage, IoT, and management
Pros and Cons
  • "We use AWS for multiple purposes, such as developing APIs and API integration using API Gateway. We use API Gateway, Python Combinator, Lambda Glue, and ETL Process. We have used EMR for big data processing. If we need a tool for computing, we go with the Lamda DMS. There are many services available in AWS that meet our needs."
  • "AWS has room for improvement on the Kubernetes side. I would like to go a little deeper into the Kubernetes target, Elastic, inner system, and all that. The EKS, target, and all these areas need to be improved, but that is not my key area because I am mostly working on the application side."

What is our primary use case?

We use AWS for multiple purposes, such as developing APIs and API integration using API Gateway. We use API Gateway, Python Combinator, Lambda Glue, and ETL Process. We have used EMR for big data processing. If we need a tool for computing, we go with the Lamda DMS. There are many services available in AWS that meet our needs.

What is most valuable?

The feature that's most valuable depends on your use case. Elasticsearch is good for testing and DynamoDb for database applications. There are so many things I could name, but you have to go with the service that is right for the use case you are looking for.

What needs improvement?

AWS has room for improvement on the Kubernetes side. I would like to go a little deeper into the Kubernetes target, Elastic, inner system, and all that. The EKS, target, and all these areas need to be improved, but that is not my key area because I am mostly working on the application side. However, I sometimes still need to work with Kubernetes container management.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been using AWS for the last seven years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

AWS has "11 9s" service availability, which means the service is available 99.99999999999 percent of the time. 

How are customer service and support?

I would rate AWS support four out of five. They're good. I can activate cases on the technical calendar through AWS development support. I've gotten a lot of support through AWS Blue. 

How would you rate customer service and support?

Positive

How was the initial setup?

The deployment complexity depends on which template you're using: AWS Terraform or CloudFormation. It's easiest to deploy services via Terraform, so you can go with that. That is the most straightforward way, and you can do all automation within Terraform.

What other advice do I have?

I rate AWS nine out of 10. Everything is moving to the cloud now, and AWS covers a lot of services, including computing, networking, storage, IoT, and management, and they are good in every way.

They face competition from GCP and Azure, but Azure is entirely a Microsoft stack, so people will go with that when they're working with Microsoft solutions. It is a little cheaper than AWS. In the end, the cloud you choose depends on the use case. It's up to the customer.

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: Implementer
PeerSpot user
Founder CEO at PROZM Knowledge Services Pvt Ltd
Real User
Has good compute features and Relational Database services
Pros and Cons
  • "The features that I have found most valuable are their compute and their Relational Database Service."
  • "The features that should be improved are that there should be better clarity on their invoicing. There are so many things they charge for - high line items in the invoice. I think there should be more clarity and more ease of use with their billing. I'd like to see better ease of use of with the billing console and a clear dashboard to understand the usage."

What is our primary use case?

We use it to host our e-learning platform.

AWS is a platform, wherein they give you a virtual instance of a server. So there is no version per se. They just give you a virtual server. The other software we use is free. We use it for conducting our exams and everything. We use a free, open source software, which is not a commercial software.

How has it helped my organization?

Remember, this is a plain vanilla platform. So we don't have to do any actual investment in servers and other things. That is the general advantage of cloud that everybody gets. You don't have to pay a lot of money. And at any point, if you feel you don't want to use it, you stop. It is as simple as that.

What is most valuable?

The features that I have found most valuable are their compute and their Relational Database Service.

What needs improvement?

The features that should be improved are that there should be better clarity on their invoicing. There are so many things they charge for - high line items in the invoice. I think there should be more clarity and more ease of use with their billing.

I'd like to see better ease of use with the billing console and a clear dashboard to understand the usage.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Amazon AWS for almost three years. We are continually using it.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Amazon AWS is very, very stable.

No maintenance is required.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Scalability is unlimited. From one to 10, it is 10.

We use it, but our training participants access it. A lot of people access it. In a year, at different points in time, 200 people might be using it.

I don't think we will be expanding usage because we purchased a little more than what we needed. We don't need to spend any money now. We only pay our monthly charges.

How are customer service and support?

Technical support is good. If you raise a ticket, they're very good. Even with billing, if you have some issues they take care of it. If you are overbilled or you're not using it and then you turn one thing by mistake, and all of a sudden the bill has increased - they'll take care of it.

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

Previously, we were using general hosting, they even call it shared hosting. But it was not scalable and it was not fast.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is all easy. It's very easy.

Our deployment took just a few clicks. You are talking seconds.

What about the implementation team?

I had our technical team do it. But you need a technical person. It's not that anybody can do it or a person like me can do it. You need to have a technical person doing it.

What was our ROI?

We have seen a return of investment with Amazon AWS.

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

We are just a customer. We just pay monthly for the subscription cost. I mean, hardly $50. We are a very small company. 

What other advice do I have?

My advice to anyone considering Amazon AWS is that they should plan properly for their spending and they should have good control over their technology team. Otherwise, if the technology team doesn't know enough and they keep on creating more services, you'll be surprised with the invoice. Technology and finance should work very, very closely in the cloud.

On a scale of one to 10, I give Amazon AWS a 10. It's a really good product.

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
Senior Oracle Database Administrator at Refinitiv
Real User
A reasonably-priced and stable platform for transitioning our customers from on-premises to the cloud
Pros and Cons
  • "The most valuable feature is that it is simple."
  • "They can launch the Oracle service in Azure, and we expect that this should be possible in Amazon AWS as well."

What is our primary use case?

The primary use case of this solution is to migrate our customers into the cloud, integrating all of their applications.

In my previous organization, we moved some customers from on-premises to the cloud, and they are happy with the change.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable feature is that it is simple. We don't use complex services for our small business customers.

What needs improvement?

When it was only Amazon AWS in the market, no one was concerned about the pricing. However, now that there are so many competitors, there is more comparison for cloud service providers. They should look into reducing the price of this solution to stay competitive. It would be a benefit.

The current trend is multi-cloud. They can launch the Oracle service in Azure, and we expect that this should be possible in Amazon AWS as well. 

I would like to see better integration between Oracle and AWS.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Amazon AWS for two years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Amazon AWS is stable and we have not faced any issues.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It's a scalable solution.

How are customer service and technical support?

We have not used technical support. We provide that to our customers.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is easy. 

Deployment is not a problem for us because we have experience. For new people, they are a bit worried about new features, until they develop a routine.

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

The Oracle licensing is higher than it is with Amazon AWS.

What other advice do I have?

The deployment varies, as some of our customers would like the hybrid cloud while others want a public cloud.

I have recommended this product to our customers and will continue to do so.

I would rate this solution an eight 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
PeerSpot user
IT Solution Architect at HCS
MSP
Top 20Leaderboard
Provides storage solutions and infrastructure for deploying Java and PHP based applications.
Pros and Cons
  • "It has helped reduce the cost by rationing the computing power and paying only on a per usage basis, instead of provisioning unneeded, idle, or unutilized computing power that is used only at 20% of its capacity or time."
  • "Many of our clients prefer in-house cloud rather than the application data sitting in the infrastructure owned and managed by Amazon."

How has it helped my organization?

For one of the clients I worked with, it has provided excellent storage solutions and infrastructure for deploying Java and PHP based applications.

It has helped reduce the cost by rationing the computing power and paying only on a per usage basis, instead of provisioning unneeded, idle, or unutilized computing power that is used only at 20% of its capacity or time.

Additional funds saved can be used to develop applications that add value to the business. Also, its features, such as auto-scaling help to manage capacity automatically.

Another feature that we are fond of is the Cloud Formation tool. It helps to test and develop a working technical environment and replicate and modify it as necessary across various regions, clients, and business units.

What is most valuable?

Features such as EC2, S3, EBS, Auto Scaling, Elastic Load Balancing, VPC (Virtual Private Cloud), RDS (Relational Data Service), Cloud Front, Cloud Formation, Elastic Bean Stack, etc., have been useful for the following reasons:

  • EC2: Supports various operating systems, CPU configurations, helps to produce flexible computing power at affordable, customizable rates. You pay for only what you use. No need to pay for unused extra capacity. Build only what you need and pay for only what you use. It can help save tons of dollars in infrastructure cost.
  • S3: Low cost, affordable, yet modern storage solution from Amazon.
  • EBS: Low cost, yet fast storage solution. It helps to store the needed data in the quickly accessible storage. Also, it helps defending against DDOS attacks.
  • Auto Scaling: Helps to quickly scale up, or scale down the capacity as needed. This would help in adding and/or removing computing capacity as per the need and helps reduce cost, yet provide a quick response as needed.
  • Elastic Load Balancing: Helps to build redundant, waiting systems for which the demand can be routed as needed.
  • VPC: Helps to define our own private cloud with marked input and output ports. Also helps in reducing the electronic footprint and defend against DDOS attacks. Helps to define the private cloud which will provide the needed security and privacy.
  • RDS: Helps to dynamically manage the database services. Helps to independently select and/or switch among various database providers such as Oracle, SQL Server, MySQL, etc. RDS helps to free up administrators' time by automating tasks such as backup, maintenance, applying patches, scaling, and replication.
  • CloudFront: Helps to define cache of data across various locations and helps to improve the latency of applications.
  • Cloud Formation: This is the much needed tool for technical architects. Here one can define the technical architecture they need and play around with it until they get a working architecture. Then the working architecture can be copied, reutilized among different regions, business units, clients, etc. This saves cost and time, reduces errors, and improves efficiency. A much needed tool for administrators and architects.
  • Elastic BeanStalk: Helps to rapidly deploy applications across various platforms such as Java, .NET, PHP, Ruby, Python, Docker, etc. It also handles load balancing, auto-scaling, and application health monitoring.

What needs improvement?

Many of our clients prefer in-house cloud rather than the application data sitting in the infrastructure owned and managed by Amazon. They prefer in-house/hybrid cloud environments.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

We did not encounter any issues with stability.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We did not encounter any issues with scalability.

How are customer service and technical support?

We have not used the technical support much. For the initial solution designing and PoC preparation, we contacted the sales and marketing team from Amazon. They were available and provided the necessary support.

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

We have used Azure and some other applications. We will continue to use them. We like keeping 2-3 vendors to have a healthy competition and see improvements in the products.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup was complex, as we needed to build the infrastructure from scratch. It would also require expertise in networking and security.

It is very important to safely manage the keys, as otherwise this would lead to costly security breaches. Some amount of playing around with the setup and replicating it via cloud formation will be needed until your architect becomes perfect with the tool.

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

It is decently priced. The competition is also bringing its own cloud offerings, such as from Oracle.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We evaluated Azure, Apprenda, and Pivotal Cloud Foundry.

Some of our established clients are going with Azure, especially the ones who had established .NET VB environments. Those who need private in-house cloud are going with Apprenda or Pivotal Cloud Foundry. For small to medium customers, AWS offers a good choice and savings.

What other advice do I have?

It depends upon the requirements and the regulatory compliance issues of the customer. For small to medium customers, AWS is a good choice. For Java, PHP based applications, AWS is a good choice. If you need to have your own private, in-house cloud, there are other options.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Amarjit Rathee - PeerSpot reviewer
Associate Vice President at Hitachi Systems, Ltd.
Real User
Top 5
Has good scalability
Pros and Cons
  • "The scalability is a valuable feature."
  • "The pricing is expensive"

What is our primary use case?

We are using it for certain business applications.

What is most valuable?

The scalability is a valuable feature. 

What needs improvement?

The improvement should be done as per business needs. 

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Amazon AWS 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. Presently, 3,000 users are using the solution. 

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is straightforward. 

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

The pricing is expensive. 

What other advice do I have?

Overall, I would rate the solution a nine out of ten. 

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Public Cloud
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Richard Halter - PeerSpot reviewer
President at Global Retail Technology Advisors, LLC
Real User
Top 10
Very fast with good stability and great for microservice architecture
Pros and Cons
  • "The solution has good speed. It's very fast."
  • "While AWS often is at the top of my list to recommend to people, I always have to tell them, "Hey, you got to be careful because if they don't like you, they can shut you down in a heartbeat. And they can kill an entire company by doing that.""

What is our primary use case?

The solution is a critical part of modern retail architecture. There are as many as 3,000 different use cases, and each client uses it differently.

How has it helped my organization?

This video explains the whole microservice architecture of which AWS is a key player: (3) Microservice POS Design - YouTube Enjoy

What is most valuable?

It's been a while since I've looked at the AWS model, however, just at a high level, of course, being able to build a microservice architecture, that's the heart of modern retail. That's where they have to go. COVID has driven everybody to realize that's what you got to do. That's one of the key components of AWS. The cloud piece is a nice supporting concept and it's necessary to make the microservices features work and make the whole architecture really agile. That's a critical component of it as well.

Of course, being able to figure out how you want to coordinate services - that whole service management piece - is critical. You could have thousands of services and I'm pretty sure you'd just be overwhelmed due to the fact that you've lost track of everything and you're back to the way things were when you had the big monolithic models.

The stability is excellent.

The solution has good speed. It's very fast.

The execution is fantastic.

What needs improvement?

I haven't delved down deep enough into the solution in order to come up with an answer for what may be lacking.

The only real downside to AWS is they can easily shut you down if they want to.

Clients ask us "Well, what happens if I go and put this on AWS and they don't like me for some screwy reason and all of a sudden they shut me down, they've killed my entire company?"

While AWS often is at the top of my list to recommend to people, I always have to tell them, "Hey, you got to be careful because if they don't like you, they can shut you down in a heartbeat. And they can kill an entire company by doing that."

For how long have I used the solution?

I've had a good understanding of how AWS works for a while. It's likely been about three or four years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The stability is excellent. It doesn't crash or freeze. There aren't bugs or glitches. It's reliable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The solution is extremely scalable. You can be a small company or a multi-billion dollar company and it will work for you. It's number one on my list of recommendations due to its scalability.

How are customer service and support?

I've never reached out to technical support in the past. I can't speak to how knowledgeable or responsive they are.

How was the initial setup?

I didn't actually set up an operating AWS model on my computer. Therefore, it would be difficult to discuss the initial setup.

I tell clients to use it, however, I don't go into building one on my own. I don't have a need for it here, and I don't have applications to run on it. In my case, it's more an architectural world rather than a physical world.

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

I work on the technology side, I don't work on the financial side. Therefore, I really don't have any clue how much it costs.

What other advice do I have?

I'm just a consultant. I don't have a partnership with AWS or any other company.

AWS is a key part of the whole microservice cloud computing.

I would recommend the solution to other organizations.

However, if I'm a multi-billion dollar retailer and I need to depend on something, how do I trust a company that can shut me down on a whim? That's a real problem. That moves AWS down and it moves Azure up just on my recommendation list.

From a technology perspective, it's well-proven, it's extensive, it covers just about everything you want to do. That's what I talk about with clients mostly, is the technology side.

While I used to rate the solution ten out of ten, the fact that Amazon can just kill a company on a whim makes me lower my rating. Currently, I'd rate it at an eight out of ten. It's great in almost every way. However, a company needs to understand that AWS can kill your company in a moment if it feels like it.

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Public Cloud
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
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.