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reviewer1443630 - PeerSpot reviewer
Chief Technology Officer at a computer software company with 501-1,000 employees
Real User
Scalable with a straightforward setup, but needs better UI
Pros and Cons
  • "The initial setup is straightforward."
  • "The user interface (UI) needs improvement. Right now, it's not the best."

What is our primary use case?

I'm a service provider providing services to customers. I'm using AWS as sort of a generalization. There are 62 products offered by Amazon on cloud-related services, which include EC2, includes Silverlight, it includes a whole bunch of different solutions, F3, EBS, so we've got solutions that we have to support for all of it.

What is most valuable?

Glacier is one of the solution's most valuable features.

The initial setup is straightforward.

What needs improvement?

The user interface (UI) needs improvement. Right now, it's not the best.

The product's authentication method could be better.

The pricing model could have a more competitive edge.

It would be great, in a future release, if the solution offers unified hybrid management, or hybrid cloud management.

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been using the solution for four years at my current company. Personally, I have about eight years of experience with the product. I've worked with it for quite a long time at this point.

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February 2025
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What do I think about the stability of the solution?

Generally, the solution is pretty stable. That said, when they have an event or an outage, it's pretty severe.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The solution is quite scalable. A company that needs to expand the solution should be able to do so pretty easily.

We have applications that run on AWS. However, in terms of administrators or interface people, that interface with AWS directly, we have probably about 80 users on the product.

How are customer service and support?

I personally have never conversed with technical support. That said, I haven't heard of any complaints about their level of service. From that, I would assume that our organization is largely satisfied with their support offering.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is not complex. It's pretty simple and straightforward.

If you know the patterns for how to set up and host, it's a quick deployment. We normally automate all of our deployments anyway, so the deployment process itself is quick and easy.

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

The product is an a la carte service. It offers a set of microservices that are associated with it. Therefore, the solution pricing varies quite a bit.

The pricing could be more competitive. If a company is questioning whether it's cheaper than owning a server yourself and running a server yourself, the general answer to the total cost of ownership is yes, it is cheaper. However, if you have to move data around a lot, it will not be cheaper.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We've evaluated other options as we use a variety of other solutions as well. We've evaluated a lot of other companies.

What other advice do I have?

We're an Amazon partner as well as customers of theirs.

We're using the latest version of the solution.

I would recommend that most small to medium businesses that they use a consultative agency or a managed service provider to help them with the product.

Overall, I would rate the solution seven out 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: Partner
PeerSpot user
PeerSpot user
Senior Technical Support Analyst at a transportation company with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Some of the valuable features are EC2, RDS, and Route 53.

What is most valuable?

  • ECS (EC2 Container Services)
  • EC2
  • RDS
  • Route 53

How has it helped my organization?

At this point, we have been testing applications that are managed by third-parties. The benefit we see at this stage is mainly cost. We are now starting to see the benefits that the platform has to offer.

What needs improvement?

At this stage, we have found the services we are using are meeting our needs. We have been asked by management to incorporate high-security (encrypted email and data volumes) on all services. Some of the security features require extra configuration to achieve that.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Amazon AWS for about seven months.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

At this point, there have been no stability issues.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

Scalability has been good using services like ECS, ECR Load Balancing, and Auto Scaling features.

How are customer service and technical support?

We have not had a need to engage support for any assistance.

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

Our previous solution was supported by a third-party. We saw the opportunity to reduce cost by managing it ourselves, in-house.

How was the initial setup?

The setup was easy at first, because a lot of the services are wizard driven. We found as we needed to customise the services further, we had to do most of this manually to get the desired result.

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

Pricing has been quite surprising, since we are running both DEV and UAT platforms simultaneously. It is definitely cheaper than the solution that has been managed by the third-party.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We did not evaluate other options. This was the one that management had chosen. I do not believe this was based on a technical viewpoint. I just think it was decided.

What other advice do I have?

You have to be able to not think as if on-premises systems are sitting in a data centre. Everything, and I mean everything, is a service that is launched by a script. We are able to run up a platform, say UAT, entirely in about an hour. The plan will be to do this entirely by scripts.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Buyer's Guide
Amazon AWS
February 2025
Learn what your peers think about Amazon AWS. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: February 2025.
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reviewer2000469 - PeerSpot reviewer
Software Engineer at a tech services company with 51-200 employees
Real User
Great EC2, simple storage, and good security
Pros and Cons
  • "We deploy our core application and our integration platform on AWS EC2 instances. These applications contain multiple containerized Python Django applications, which need to scale up and down dynamically."
  • "It could be made cheaper. I know we spend a lot of money each month on AWS."

What is our primary use case?

We deploy our core application and our integrations platform on AWS EC2 instances. Both applications contain multiple containerized Python Django applications, which need to scale with how often and how intensely customers use the platform. 

We need a secure cloud environment to support our new self-service API, allowing customers to hit our services from outside an outside service. AWS provides the security, scalability, and flexibility to make this happen.

We also store large customer files on AWS S3 Buckets.

How has it helped my organization?

Without AWS, our organization simply would not exist. Our entire tech stack is served on AWS. Thanks to AWS, we have been able to save money. Thanks to AWS, we have been able to save time and utilize technical resources in other ways. Other ways include building out the front end of our application as well as the back end of our application. Without AWS, we would have to hire network/server engineers, which would take away from our overall speed of growth.

What is most valuable?

We have found the Elastic Cloud Compute service (EC2) as well as the simple storage solution (S3) to be the most valuable aspects of the solution.

We deploy our core application and our integration platform on AWS EC2 instances. These applications contain multiple containerized Python Django applications, which need to scale up and down dynamically. They also need to be secure to prevent unwanted bad actors from using our AWS compute instances for malicious activity.

Finally, we find the S3 buckets to be quite valuable. S3 allows us to securely store large customer files without fear of them being compromised, changed, lost, or corrupted.

What needs improvement?

I am not an expert in AWS, nor do I work in the dev-ops department, so I might not be the best person to ask this question. It could be made cheaper. I know we spend a lot of money each month on AWS.

For how long have I used the solution?

We have been using AWS since the company was founded in 2017 - about five years.

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
Derek Smith - PeerSpot reviewer
Development and Release Compliance Officer at a computer software company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Real User
Reliable with good monitoring but the UI needs to be better
Pros and Cons
  • "The monitoring is the most valuable aspect of the product."
  • "The interface needs a bit of work. It's not intuitive."

What is our primary use case?

We do have quite a lot of AWS deployments and clients in certain countries.

We use it for spinning up environments, using infrastructure as code. We use it for disaster recovery and high availability for creating BMs for testing. Mainly on the service side, we use it for setting up environments and spinning up environments.

What is most valuable?

The monitoring is the most valuable aspect of the product.

Technical support is available if you need it.

The solution is stable.

The scalability is okay. It's similar to what you would get with Azure. 

What needs improvement?

The interface needs a bit of work. It's not intuitive.

The solution's initial setup can be complex. 

For how long have I used the solution?

I've been using AWS for about 15 years. It's been a very long time. 

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

The stability is fine. I haven't had issues with crashing or bugs or glitches. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

The solution's scalability is pretty good. These solutions are pretty well known for not being able to scale well. They behave very differently at scale. I wouldn't say it's any better or worse than Azure is; it's probably on par.

Internally, we have about 500 people using the solution right now. 

How are customer service and support?

I have never used technical support myself, although it's my understanding that our team does from time to time. We do all the first line ourselves. Anything that escalates to the third line, we have contracts in place to help us get assistance.

How was the initial setup?

I found the initial setup to be pretty complex. It's just getting more and more complex, with the infrastructure as CodePipelines and that sort of thing. On a scale of one to five, one being the worst and five being the best in terms of complexity, I'd say it's a three.

I have no idea what the operational side does in terms of maintenance. It's not an aspect that falls under my responsibilities. 

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

I don't handle the licensing side of things and therefore cannot comment on the price of the solution.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We also looked at Azure DevOps.

What other advice do I have?

I'm a customer and an end-user.

We use various deployments, including on-premises, public, private, and hybrid clouds. The deployment is dependent on the customer, the solution, and the service level agreements that we have. We use all of those models. We make our choice based on the requirement.

I'd advise potential new users to actually do a shootout between the different products based on your use case and choose the right one.

I would rate the solution seven out of ten. I'd rate it higher, however, the UI needs improvement first.

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
reviewer1505535 - PeerSpot reviewer
Corporate IT Applications Manager at a retailer with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Robust, easy straightforward, and works well for our e-commerce solution
Pros and Cons
  • "The stability is magnificent, it's spectacular."
  • "When you are first starting, the initial setup can be a bit complex, but it gets easier after that."

What is our primary use case?

We use Amazon AWS as an IaaS Cloud for our e-commerce sites.

How has it helped my organization?

Because of the stability and scalability AWS provides, our team can now focus on how to engage and delight our customers instead of constantly being fixing production issues.

What is most valuable?

We have not had any problems at all. 

In the 4 years that we have been using  IaaS services from Amazon, we have not had any issues.

It's a great IaaS cloud. They are the leaders. No cloud provider can match Amazon right now.

Other providers are improving year over year, but Amazon is still ahead at least two years.

What needs improvement?

Working with AWS requieres your organization to invest in training your team to better use and take advantaje of all that AWS has to offer.

For how long have I used the solution?

We have been using this solution for 4 years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

AWS provides without a doubt the most mature and stable IaaS cloud in the market.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We have thousands of customers who are going to our websites to purchase goods and it takes a matter of minutes to scale the infrastructure both horizontally or vertically.

How are customer service and technical support?

Great services, assistance and response time from the AWS team

How was the initial setup?

It depends on how complex is the architecture of the solution to be deployed, in our case because Magento is sort of "native" for AWS it has been straightforward.

What about the implementation team?

We implement through a vendor team specialized implementing and managing Magento on AWS

What other advice do I have?

I would rate Amazon AWS a ten 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
Scrum Master | Project Manager | SW Developer at Mobi7
Real User
Good availability and reliability, with a user-friendly set of tools
Pros and Cons
  • "The most valuable feature is the availability, as we work in different availability zones."
  • "At times we find ourselves a little trapped, with the lack of customization, for what we need."

What is our primary use case?

I am a software developer and I have experience with several languages and technology stacks. Amazon AWS is one of the technologies that I work with. It's integrated with the solution that we have. It's a continuous integration and deployment pipeline.

What is most valuable?

The most valuable feature is the availability, as we work in different availability zones.

It has been easy to use, and the tools included are quite friendly.

The reliability and ease of use are the benefits.

What needs improvement?

At times we find ourselves a little trapped, with the lack of customization, for what we need. That doesn't mean that the tool is lacking it means that we are trying to be more creative than the tool and the rest of the market. In cases like this, it is we who need to revise our plans.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been working with Amazon AWS for one year.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

We are pretty happy with the stability.

The only issue that we have encountered is when Amazon had problems with one of their availability zones that impacted half of the world. We found that we were impacted as well, but it wasn't that difficult for us because we already had a solution with multiple zones. We had a minimal outage, as we were swapping from one server to another. It took less than ten minutes for us, so we were pretty pleased.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It's a scalable solution.

We have both options of vertical and horizontal scalability. Everything that we have needed so far has worked well. We have no complaints.

We are in the process of scaling up. We have an IoT solution and if we translate that to endpoints and devices that are monitored, we would have 70,000 devices, and counting, in the field. In terms of clients, there are 300 to 400, each of them with their own users.

How are customer service and technical support?

We have contacted technical support and because we are just a small client, rather than a partner, it can take 30 minutes to get a solution. We have not had to use it much to this point, so this may not be a fair evaluation.

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

This solution was already in place when I started with the company. AWS was in-place and they have never switched to anything else.

How was the initial setup?

Our build, or deployment, is dependent on the application, but the pipeline for submitting a new commit and making it a hot deploy would take from five to twenty minutes, depending on the solution.

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

For our infrastructure, the cost is approximately $25 per device, and you have to include the other tools that we have in the cloud, for a total of approximately $200,000 per year. Our tools included several databases and Kubernetes. If the price was a little bit cheaper, I would consider this solution to be a ten out of ten.

What other advice do I have?

I'm not very experienced in the solution yet. I don't have a clear view of all that is offered, but with the experience that I do have, I'm pretty happy with the features and it is difficult for me to find where they are lacking.

Currently, I am switching to Redshift, which is one of their solutions that is already deployed. I can't say that I'm missing anything from their roadmap, so far.

I would rate Amazon AWS a nine out 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: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
reviewer1483656 - PeerSpot reviewer
Assistant General Manager, Information Technology & Infrastructure at a real estate/law firm with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Easy to provision new virtual services, easy to scale, and has most of the infrastructure components
Pros and Cons
  • "It is quite easy to provision new virtual services for our use. The procedures are quite straightforward and simple as compared to other competitors, such as Microsoft or Huawei. This is what we are happy about with Amazon AWS. It is pretty mature in terms of the availability of most of the infrastructure components. If you want to deploy a server on your platform, everything is already there in terms of the operating system, network components, securities, and data encryption. It is also quite scalable and stable."
  • "Our use case is limited to virtual services and RPA development. We are not using it quite heavily, and there are not many issues or problems so far. However, it would be great if it could be integrated with more AI features and proactive monitoring. It could also have more automatic capacity expansion features. For example, when renting out some space, memory, or computing power, the service can have the capacity to expand by itself without being manually handled by us."

What is our primary use case?

It has been useful for running virtual services for some of our internal applications. Some of the developers are using it for doing some kind of development work on robotics process automation or RPA.

What is most valuable?

It is quite easy to provision new virtual services for our use. The procedures are quite straightforward and simple as compared to other competitors, such as Microsoft or Huawei. This is what we are happy about with Amazon AWS.

It is pretty mature in terms of the availability of most of the infrastructure components. If you want to deploy a server on your platform, everything is already there in terms of the operating system, network components, securities, and data encryption. It is also quite scalable and stable.

What needs improvement?

Our use case is limited to virtual services and RPA development. We are not using it quite heavily, and there are not many issues or problems so far. However, it would be great if it could be integrated with more AI features and proactive monitoring. It could also have more automatic capacity expansion features. For example, when renting out some space, memory, or computing power, the service can have the capacity to expand by itself without being manually handled by us.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using this solution for two to three years.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It is quite stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It is quite scalable. It is easy to expand and unsubscribe. In terms of the number of users, we have ten administrators from the IT side.

How are customer service and technical support?

We have interacted with them. They are quite responsive to our inquiries.

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup was easy.

What about the implementation team?

It was pretty much done by our in-house developers.

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

Licensing is on a yearly basis. I believe we are satisfied with the current pricing. Otherwise, we would have switched to another vendor.

What other advice do I have?

I would recommend this solution. Amazon AWS cloud is pretty mature in terms of availability for most of the infrastructure components. It is a one-stop shop that gives everybody simple steps to get things done, which is great.

I would rate Amazon AWS an eight out of ten.

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
it_user677697 - PeerSpot reviewer
Sr. Engineer at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
Real User
CloudWatch provides many plugins to manage various types of logs centrally.

What is most valuable?

Auto Scaling and CloudWatch Logs are the most valuable features. With just a few criteria to scale in/out of, you can save the life and time for DevOps.

The CloudWatch Logs feature provides many plugins, so that we are able to manage various types of logs centrally.

How has it helped my organization?

In the era, we used private clouds as network virtualization must be controlled by the IT division, server rooms were in the remote branches and DevOps were distributed in various areas. Now, we can use the same API and the same workflow without considering to centralize the logs.

What needs improvement?

IaaS is sometimes way too complicated to complete one task.

For how long have I used the solution?

I have used this solution for around eight months.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

So far, the VPC is sometimes not that reliable. Therefore, we have to set up a redundant VPC to make sure the connection is always available.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We do not have any scalability issues until now.

How are customer service and technical support?

I have never used technical support.

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

Previously, we surveyed OpenStack. However, due to the time, budget and manpower limitations, building a private cloud is not practical in our case.

How was the initial setup?

Managing IaaS was very difficult in the beginning, i.e., tons of jargon to get up and I struggled for months.

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

Try the Google Cloud Platform (GCP). It is yet another good choice because sometimes, what you need is just a platform and not to build a platform from the infrastructure.

What other advice do I have?

When your division grows to a certain scale and you really need DevOps, then you could move either to a private/public cloud. Otherwise, it is a waste of time and money.

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: February 2025
Buyer's Guide
Download our free Amazon AWS Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.