Cloud Services Explained: A Menu of Choices for Your Business

Let’s say you run a restaurant. There are three ways you can manage your kitchen:

1.You rent a kitchen, and you are in charge of everything (Server-Based).

2 .You employ a catering service that prepares meals as needed.

3.Everything is prepared according to a predefined menu and cooked in a single large pot (Monolithic).

This is precisely how companies select from among several AWS cloud services. Let’s put it in plain language.

What Are These Services in the Cloud?

.Server-Based (Conventional Cloud Servers: Similar to Hiring a Cook)

Imagine renting a kitchen that is completely furnished. You hire chefs, purchase ingredients, and have complete control over the menu and the quality of the meal. Although you are in charge of running the entire business, you are free to increase or decrease the number of staff members as necessary.

AWS EC2 cloud servers are rented by large corporations such as Netflix in order to stream movies to millions of consumers.

Ideal For: Big companies with steady workloads, such as e-commerce, banking, and healthcare.

Cost: Whether or not you use the kitchen (server), you are still responsible for paying for it.

.On-Demand Catering (Serverless): You Pay Only for What You Eat!

You employ a food service that only makes meals when you have customers, rather than managing a kitchen. No need to pay for chefs or equipment when no one is ordering.

Example: Airbnb uses AWS Lambda (serverless) to handle search results only when someone looks for a property.

Best For: Startups and businesses with unpredictable demand, like travel apps and ticket booking.

Cost: Because you only pay when the service is used, it’s more affordable for companies with fluctuating traffic volume.

Monolithic (One Big Pot-Everything in One Place):

This is similar to preparing a fixed dinner in one large pot. The procedure is straightforward, but you have to start over if you wish to change just one ingredient.

Example: Monolithic systems are used by many internal company tools and older businesses.

Ideal For: Small companies that don’t require frequent updates to their basic websites or apps.

Cost: If you don’t want scalability, this is typically the least expensive choice.