Amazon Web Services (AWS)

The main articles are:

• Amazon
• What is IaaS
• Cloud Infrastructure Services (Global)

Amazon Web Services (AWS) is the Web Services platform infrastructure in the cloud, introduced by Amazon in early 2006. This infrastructure contains many services such as: data storage (file hosting, distributed data storage), rental of virtual servers, provision of computing power, etc.

Ecosystem of services

For 2024, AWS offers a wide range of cloud services:

• Calculations: Amazon EC2 (virtual machines), Lambda (features without a server), ECS and EKS (containers).

• Storage: S3 (object storage), EBS (disk storage), Glacier (archival storage).

• Data Base: RDS (relational databases), DynamoDB, Redshift (data storage), Aurora.

• Сеть: VPC, Route 53, CloudFront (CDN), Elastic Load Balancing.

• AI and machine learning: SageMaker, Rekognition, Polly, Lex, Amazon Bedrock, Rufus, Alexa.

• Analytics: Amazon Redshift, EMR (Hadoop), Kinesis, Athena, QuickSight.

• Security (AWS Identity and Access Management + AWS Shield) and other services.

AWS continues to expand its infrastructure, offering 105 accessibility zones in 33 geographic regions around the world, with plans to open 6 more new regions.

AWS is actively investing in the development of new chips such as Graviton4 and Trainium2 that deliver improved performance and efficiency for cloud applications and machine learning.

Performance indicators

AWS annual revenue:

• in 2015 - $7.9 billion,
• in 2017 - $17.5 billion,
• in 2019 before COVID-19 - $35 billion,
• in 2021 - $62.2 billion,
• in 2023 - $90.7 billion.

2024: Global Cloud Infrastructure Services Market Leadership

AWS controls about 1/3 of the global cloud infrastructure services market, Microsoft Azure is in second place - about 23-25% and Google Cloud Platform (GCP) - about 10-13%, i.e. up to 70% of the market under three companies with share growth and capture potential up to 80% by 2027. Others include Alibaba Cloud, IBM Cloud and Oracle Cloud.

Up to half of all GIYA startups weighted by revenue are based on infrastructure Amazon , according to preliminary estimates, but Microsoft Google wants to take this share, it intervenes in the game. Meta

2020: Revenue growth 30%, to $45.37 billion

In 2020, Amazon Web Services (AWS) revenue amounted to $45.37 billion against $35 billion a year earlier. One of the main reasons for such a strong rise (by 30%) in Amazon's cloud business is the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, in which people have become more likely to stay at home and use online tools for work, study and entertainment purposes.

Amazon Web Services' profit at the end of 2020 reached $13.53 billion, which also significantly exceeds the result of a year ago - in 2019, profit was measured at $9.2 billion. Amazon's cloud division accounted for 12% of the company's total revenue, and its profit share exceeded 50%.

According to Amazon, in 2020, the company allowed customers to use its two cloud services to manage software containers in local data centers, and not just based on the data centers of Amazon itself.

Summing up the results of 2020, the company noted the launch of free training of people in cloud technologies. Amazon hopes that by 2025, up to 29 million people around the world will take these educational courses.

As part of the AWS Activate program, Amazon has provided startups with discounts totaling more than $1 billion to work with AWS cloud services in order to support the scaling of their business.

Amazon has secured several major cloud contracts in 2020. Among them are JPMorgan Chase, Itaú Unibanco (Latin America's largest bank) and Standard Chartered Bank, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), Thomson Reuters, ViacomCBS, ARM, Twitter, Siemens Smart Infrastructure and BMW Group.

By the end of 2020, AWS has 77 so-called Availability Zones within 24 geographical regions. The company plans to increase these indicators by 18 and 6, respectively.^[1]

Partner Program

Main article: AWS Partner Program

History

2024

US companies abandon AWS cloud services in favor of local IT infrastructure because it has become much cheaper

In mid-October 2024, it became known that companies in the United States began to abandon the use of cloud services and return to the local IT infrastructure, which turns out to be cheaper to operate - even taking into account equipment. In particular, this is stated by the American private company 37signals, the creator of the Ruby on Rails framework and the Basecamp project management tool. Read more here.

Roskomnadzor blocked AWS services in Russia due to violation of the landing law

On April 15, 2024, the Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology and Mass Media (Roskomnadzor) blocked the Amazon Web Services (AWS) website and began restricting access to the cloud services of the American company.

According to RBC, citing materials from Roskomnadzor, AWS blocking is associated with non-compliance with the landing law, which obliges large foreign IT companies with a daily audience in Russia of 500 thousand people to create full-fledged representative offices (branches) in Russia, register a personal account on the Roskomnadzor website and place an electronic form on its resource for feedback with Russian citizens or organizations. Otherwise, a number of "coercion measures" are provided for in relation to these companies, up to complete blocking in Russia. As of April 16, 2024, 26 foreign companies were included in the list for "landing" by Roskomnadzor.

When trying to open the AWS site from a Russian IP address, error 404 occurs - it does not open. According to CNews, the resource is unavailable when connected to the Internet through at least Beeline (wired and mobile Internet), MTS (mobile Internet), Dom.Ru (wired Internet) and Tele2 (mobile Internet).

Roskomnadzor blocked Amazon cloud services

As Vedomosti writes with reference to a source in one of the cloud providers, if sites or domains used by users from the Russian Federation are located on AWS services, then these resources are at risk. Blocking services will lead to inaccessibility of sites and domains, it will be necessary to reconfigure sites to the resources of other hosting providers or replace DNS servers for domains, the interlocutor explained. Selectel believes that blocking AWS will stimulate Russian companies to switch to local hosting providers^[2].

Employee layoffs

In early April 2024, Amazon Web Services (AWS), a cloud division, Amazon announced a reorganization that would lay off hundreds of employees. The cuts will affect several divisions, attributed to "rapid changes in the industry."

It is reported, in particular, that the layoffs will affect the sales, marketing and global services department. In addition, employees of the technical division of offline stores will lose their jobs. A significant part of the reductions are related to areas such as training and certification. AWS says that due to the changed market environment, the company is shifting its focus to self-directed digital training and programs conducted by third-party partners. In addition, the company points to the duplication of some roles in the management and sales segments.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) announces reorganization

We work in an incredibly fast-paced industry and it is important that our organisational structure remains flexible. Such decisions are not taken lightly, and we understand that these changes can create difficulties for staff, "said Matt Garman, senior vice president of AWS.

The downsizing is in line with Amazon's cloud business strategy and priorities, he said. The reorganization will help improve efficiency in the long term. AWS identified several areas "that need to be optimized in order to continue to focus efforts on key strategic areas that will have maximum impact." Dismissed employees will receive monetary compensation and other payments due, as well as comprehensive support. At the same time, AWS emphasizes that it will continue to expand the staff of other divisions, with the work of which the success of the cloud business is directly related.^[3]

Shutdown of cloud services in Russia due to US sanctions

On March 15, 2024, it became known that Microsoft and Amazon were closing access to cloud services for organizations in Russia. Restrictions are introduced within the framework of the 12th package of sanctions against Russia, which prohibits the supply of software for business analytics, customer relationship management (CRM) to the Russian Federation, etc. Read more here.

Reverse penalty for violation of landing law

In January 2024, a Moscow court imposed negotiable fines on 11 hosting companies totaling 367.5 million rubles for refusing to open representative offices in Russia. Read more here.

2023: Inclusion by Roskomnadzor in the list of foreign companies subject to "landing"

Roskomnadzor expanded the list of foreign companies subject to "landing," adding Amazon Web Services, Inc. The following companies were also included in the list:

• Hetzner Online GmbH (hetzner.com);
• Network Solutions, LLC (networksolutions.com);
• WPEngine, Inc. (wpengine.com);
• HostGator.com, LLC (hostgator.com);
• Ionos Inc. (ionos.com);
• DreamHost, LLC (dreamhost.com);
• FastComet, Inc. (fastcomet.com);
• DigitalOcean, LLC (digitalocean.com);
• Kamatera Inc. (kamatera.com);
• Bluehost Inc. (bluehost.com);
• GoDaddy.com LLC (godaddy.com).

According to the law in force by June 2023, foreign Internet companies with a daily audience of over 500 thousand users must open representative offices in Russia. They are also required to register a personal account on the Roskomnadzor website for interaction with authorities and post a form on their website for feedback from Russian users.

However, the companies included in this list by June 23, 2023 do not conduct any active activity in Russia, said Karen Ghazaryan, director of the Institute for Internet Research. Since the beginning of 2022, they have not had much interest in working in the Russian market, so any changes in their work are unlikely to follow, he says.

For Russian users, these companies until 2022 were the main ones in this segment, now, in the context of import substitution, Yandex, Sber, VK and other companies developing cloud services came to the fore, the expert said in a conversation with Vedomosti.

Our industry is "mature," there is something to offer, there is something to choose from, the quality is sufficient for services. Yes, you can raise AWS to heaven or talk about a huge community and WP modules, but in general, we can solve problems with domestic services, "added Zaur Abasmirzoev, general director of the developer of the Russian web server Angie.[4]

2022

Termination of registration of new customers in Russia and Belarus

On March 8, 2022, Amazon announced the termination of registration of new Amazon Web Services customers in Russia and Belarus. Thus, another American technology company limited work in the Russian Federation after the start of the Russian special operation in Ukraine.

Unlike other technology companies in the US, AWS does not have data centers, infrastructure or offices in Russia. We have a long-standing policy of not doing business with the Russian government, "AWS said in a blog post.

The company added that AWS provided services to a number of companies operating in Russia, usually subsidiaries with headquarters outside the country of corporations. What is the share of income in Russia in the total revenue of AWS, not reported.

AWS did not have so-called Local Zones in Russia. This is a type of infrastructure designed to perform operations that require a delay of ten milliseconds (such as video rendering, developers accessing databases, intensive use of graphics in applications for virtual desktops, etc.). To do this, AWS places computing resources, information storage, databases and other services in cities with a large population, near large industrial centers, that is, in those areas where data traffic is high.

Earlier, the Ukrainian authorities asked Amazon to suspend all its cloud services in Russia.

The suspension of AWS services in the Russian Federation will support the global united movement of many governments and companies that have chosen long-term stability and growth rather than potential temporary profit losses, "Mikhail Fedorov, Minister of Digital Transformation of Ukraine, wrote on his Twitter blog on March 6, 2022[5]

Promotion of the AWS marketplace in conjunction with SoftwareONE's PyraCloud platform

On January 25, 2022, SoftwareONE Holding AG announced a multi-year strategic partnership agreement with Amazon to accelerate the adoption of cloud technologies from its customers. Key areas of cooperation include the promotion of SoftwareONE's Simple for AWS tools, enterprise migration to AWS cloud solutions, and the adaptation and promotion of the AWS marketplace in conjunction with SoftwareONE's PyraCloud platform. Read more here.

2021

Major glitch in Amazon cloud services

On December 7, 2021, Amazon's cloud services experienced a massive outage that caused millions of sites around the world to either shut down completely or operate with large interruptions. The problem also affected large resources.

According to Downdetector, a service that monitors crashes and outages of popular Internet resources, users reported outages on Amazon, Disney, Facebook, Tinder and Netflix, as well as the Mcdonald's app.

Users from the USA, Great Britain, India and other countries complained about problems with access to sites. Failures in a number of services were also recorded in Russia.

In addition to third-party services, the failure caused serious problems with Amazon Ring smart home systems, Alexa speakers and Amazon Prime Video streaming service.

We have problems with API and management in the US-EAST-1 region (northeastern United States), the AWS said in a statement. - We have identified the root cause and are actively working on recovery. This issue affects the console's global landing page, which is also hosted in the US-EAST-1.

As a result of the AWS failure, automated warehouse bots stopped work. Applications that connect storage, delivery and Amazon Flex employees did not work.

Apparently, the problem concerns only one of data centers the Amazon Web Services, which is located in Virginia, and users who are connected to other servers may not notice the problems, notes The Verge. Amazon's network of data centers is used by many Internet pages and services, and previous failures in its work led to serious problems in its work, the Internet publication added.

By 18:00 Moscow time on December 8, 2021, AWS specialists eliminated problems and there are no difficulties accessing sites.^[6]

Blue Prism Service Assist Integration Plan

On November 16, 2021, Blue Prism and Amazon announced a multi-year strategic cooperation agreement to transform intelligent automation practices in enterprises.

Expanding the range of automation tools provided by both companies, such as Blue Prism Service Assist, which gives customers a comprehensive overview of customer interactions in a contact center, Blue Prism will create software-as-a-service (SaaS) offerings based on AWS by working together with the AWS Intelligent Automation team to increase the intelligence and availability of Blue Prism digital robots. This will allow digital robots to take advantage of the capabilities of the Amazon Machine Learning ( Amazon ML) stack.

As part of the collaboration, Blue Prism will accelerate integration its digital robots into AWS applications and services, including cloudy AWS's Amazon Connect multichannel contact center, AWS performance apps like, and Amazon Chime AWS artificial intelligence and Amazon ML services like Amazon Lex and Amazon Transcribe. The two organizations will join forces to create operational threads that support industry use cases. The Blue Prism On Demand offering, which will be available at AWS Marketplace in 2022, will be one of the industry's first portfolios of on-demand intelligent automation solutions available under the consumption-based pricing model. This proposal will allow organizations to assess their needs for intelligent automation, unlock value and profitability in, investments business processes and simplify the scaling process.

The world and jobs are evolving rapidly, organizations are having opportunities to use intelligent technology for automation to improve productivity, improve performance and rethink how they do business, "said Terry Walby (Terry Walby), chief executive of Blue Prism Ventures, - Partnering with Amazon Web Services will allow us to continue expanding our capabilities and deliver intelligent automation solutions to organizations around the world seamlessly, on demand and on a large or international scale.

This collaboration will give customers greater access to intelligent automation solutions to accelerate business transformation, "said Madhu Raman, Head of Intelligent Automation at AWS. - Our customers will have an extensive portfolio of real-world automation capabilities, including business process enhancements. Customers will also be able to take advantage of more agile and flexible cloud solutions for contact centers that combine our technologies.

Commvault Backup & Recovery Availability

On October 25, 2021, Commvault announced the availability of Commvault Backup & Recovery and Commvault Professional Services in the AWS Marketplace software catalog, where you can find, obtain for evaluation testing, purchase and deploy software for the AWS public cloud. Read more here.

The Ministry of Digital Development of Ukraine and Amazon signed an agreement on the development of cloud state services

In July 2021, the Ministry of Transformation of Ukraine and Amazon signed an agreement, one of the conditions of which was the development of cloud state services in the country.

The memorandum provides for cooperation between the Ministry of Digital Development and Amazon Web Services (AWS) in the following areas:

• Develop cloud skills to implement cloud-based training and certification programs
• support in the implementation of the strategy of the Ministry of Digital Development for the development of IT infrastructure and the distribution of cloud technologies, in particular, through the development of small and medium-sized businesses and startups that use cloud solutions;
• cooperation on IT modernization and the Ministry's cloud policy.

As part of the program, Ukrainian educational institutions will be able to join AWS Academy, providing students, teachers and educational institutions with resources to accelerate cloud learning. The program provides free services that are available to an unlimited number of students and teachers.

AWS Activate offers free tools for business development, provides resources for using AWS cloud services, training programs and expert advice.

The development of cloud technologies To Ukraine in is a priority now. Especially for state authorities. This will reduce the risks of corruption in equipment purchases, significantly reduce budget expenditures and accelerate the introduction of innovations in the state, the Minister of Digital Transformation said. Mikhail Fedorov

According to him, the beginning of cooperation with Amazon Web Services was a positive signal to other large international companies and brands that "Ukraine can and should be entered."^[7]

Man who tried to blow up Amazon data centre arrested

In April 2021, a 28-year-old was arrested who Seth Aaron Pendley wanted to blow up one of data centers Amazon Web Services () AWS to cause a global glitch. Internet The suspect was FBI detained after buying C-4 explosives from an undercover agent, which he wanted to use to detonate servers. More here.

As part of Red Hat OpenShift Service on AWS (ROSA)

On March 20, 2021, Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Red Hat, an open source solution provider, announced the launch of the managed Red Hat OpenShift Service on AWS (ROSA), which is available through AWS Console and helps Red Hat OpenShift customers simplify the assembly, scaling and management of container applications on the AWS platform. Read more here.

Adam Selipsky is the new head of AWS

On March 23, 2021, Amazon announced the appointment of Adam Selipsky as the new CEO of its cloud services subsidiary Amazon Web Services (AWS). The ex-head of Tableau Software will officially begin new duties in the third quarter. Read more here.

Trend Micro Cloud One Availability at AWS Marketplace

On March 22, 2021, Trend Micro introduced a solution at the AWS Marketplace for organizations that work with Amazon Web Services (AWS). The comprehensive Trend Micro Cloud One platform is designed to protect cloud environments with services designed for applications, network, workloads, file storage, containers, and cloud security health management . Read more here.

AWS Transit Gateway Connect Integration with Aruba SD-Branch and Silver Peak Unity EdgeConnect

On January 13, 2021, Aruba, Hewlett Packard Enterprise announced the emerging capabilities of its SD-WAN portfolio, including the Aruba SD-Branch solution and the recently acquired Silver Peak Unity EdgeConnect solution, designed to centrally monitor, manage and automate branch connection to Amazon Web Services (AWS). Integration of Aruba SD-WAN solutions with AWS Transit Gateway Connect cloud solution greatly simplifies network operation and management. More pltcm .

2020

50 data centers for $35 billion. Amazon named the largest place to concentrate its data centers

In early November 2021, Amazon announced that it had spent a total of $35 billion on the creation and operation of cloud data centers in Northern Virginia from 2011 to 2020. Amazon Web Services (AWS) is responsible for the cloud business as part of the retailer.

Thus, the company's annual spending on data centers in Northern Virginia is $3.5 billion. Every year, Amazon significantly expands its operations in the region and around the world to provide more opportunities and keep pace with the rapid growth of its cloud computing business, the company said.

The AWS cloud region in Northern Virginia includes more than 50 data centers, with the region being the largest concentration of data centers worldwide due to its vast amount of installed IT infrastructure, extensive connectivity, and strategic location near Washington.

AWS '$35 billion investment in data centers includes construction costs, internal IT equipment, employee wages, utilities, security, and third-party services for the construction and operation of facilities. The cloud computing giant said it continues to build data centers in Virginia at a rapid pace and scale to meet the needs of more companies moving to the cloud.

The construction and operation of AWS data centers in Virginia generated a gross domestic product (GDP) of $1.3 billion and supported more than 13,500 jobs in 2020 alone. AWS is one of the largest employers in the state's private sector, with more than 8,800 workers in offices and data centers across Virginia.

Virginia's GDP over the past decade includes a company contribution of $4.3 billion, CRN notes.^[8]

Investing $2.77 billion in the creation of several data centers in India

In early November 2020, it became known that Amazon will invest $2.77 billion in the creation of data centers in the state of Telangana (India). The new AWS Asian region will be Amazon's second infrastructure region in India.

The investment will allow Amazon to create AWS cloud region in Hyderabad City by mid-2022. This was announced by K. T. Rama Rao, Minister of Information Technology, Electronics and Communications of Telangana State.

The new region will allow even more developers, startups and enterprises, as well as government, educational and non-profit organizations to launch their applications and serve end users from data centers located in India, Amazon notes.

But for Amazon, too, there are many benefits to this. Jayant Colla, chief analyst at consulting firm Convergence Catalyst, told TechCrunch that with more cloud regions in India, Amazon would be easier to comply with national data localization policies. The new investment will also help Amazon, which is the market leader in cloud computing in India, attract even more customers.

Companies in India are using cloud computing to reduce costs, increase flexibility and enable rapid innovation to meet the needs of billions of customers in India and abroad, said Peter DeSantis, senior vice president of global infrastructure and customer support at Amazon Web Services. - Together with our AWS region in Asia-Pacific (Mumbai), we provide customers with greater flexibility and choice and enable them to build their infrastructure architecture for even greater resiliency and accessibility across different geographic regions.[9]

The emergence of a cryptocurrency botnet attacking AWS

In August 2020, cybersecurity specialists from Cado Security discovered the first cryptocurrency botnet of its kind, the capabilities of which allow you to steal confidential data from infected AWS servers. Read more here.

Availability of Nutanix Clusters on AWS

On August 11, 2020, Nutanix announced the availability of the Nutanix Clusters on AWS solution. It makes it possible to install and use all Nutanix products and services on the Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) clean servers of the Amazon NEXT platform. More details here.

Full entry into the Russian market

On July 6, 2020, Mail.ru Group announced cooperation with Amazon Web Services (AWS), within which the American company will be able to fully enter the Russian cloud services market.

Mail.ru Cloud Solutions (MCS, part of the Mail.ru Group) and AWS have agreed to jointly launch a hybrid cloud platform for business. Its users will be able to connect simultaneously to the capacities of both Amazon and Mail.ru Group. At the same time, Mail.ru Cloud Solutions will automatically provide a VPN connection between cloud infrastructures.

The integration of Amazon EKS and Mail.ru Cloud Containers (Kubernetes aaS service provided by MCS) will simplify centralized cluster management for users using a hybrid architecture. The use of federation will allow you to evenly distribute the load on the network, as well as minimize delays in data transfer due to the use of the cluster closest to the client.

We are talking about a solution when Kubernetes services are placed in the Mail.ru and AWS clouds independently, but will be able to work in federated mode and provide load distribution, fault tolerance between these clusters, - explained TAdviser in the Mail.ru Group. - Customers need to have separate accounts both in the AWS cloud and in the Mail.ru cloud and pay for services consumed.

Resources in clusters are synchronized, and auto-configuration of DNS servers allows you to balance the load for the backend of all clusters. This minimizes the risk of common cluster failure and increases infrastructure availability. If at some point a cluster in one region is unavailable, traffic will be redirected to another to avoid disruption.

The new solution allows Russian and international companies operating in to Russia automatically deploy federated clusters Kubernetes simultaneously at the facilities of Amazon Web Services (AWS) and MCS. One of the customers who has already started testing this MCS service is Vizor Interactive.

The solution is designed for a certain group of customers operating in several markets. Automation of the creation of a hybrid cloud allows developers to implement fast and simultaneous launch of products in both the Russian and global markets, explained TAdviserv Mail.ru Group.

The company expects that partnership with MCS will help global AWS customers freely enter the Russian market, while complying with all the requirements of local legislation, and Russian MCS customers will have the opportunity to quickly scale in foreign markets.^[10]

Yuri Novikov, head of cloud technology development at Softline, believes that the Russian cloud market can be called highly competitive: many small hosters, internal clouds, large local players, global clouds, etc. None of them yet occupies a share of more than 10%, which indicates great fragmentation and high competition, he points out. Last year, since the acquisition of MTS"" and Rostelecom"" large providers, a trend towards market consolidation began and, apparently, other similar purchases and combinations should be expected in the near future.

AWS was in the market and before partnering with Mail.ru. Providing the best cloud solutions in its segment, it is quite common and in demand. Along with Microsoft and Google, AWS holds a confident lead in the world's top three cloud service providers. Strengthening its presence and partner projects should give the market more transparency in the use of global clouds and more opportunities for Russian customers, who are sometimes afraid to resort to using foreign cloud services, and sometimes limited by the current law and, if personal data of Russian citizens are processed, cannot use them, Novikov said in a conversation with TAdviser.

Softline does not plan to compete with AWS, Yuri Novikov added. The company complements the products of global players with the services necessary for customers.

Our company is a partner of almost all global cloud providers and offers a range of services for global clouds in Russia and the world - from those support to Managed Cloud Governance solutions, when we take care of the entire customer's cloud infrastructure in the main global clouds (AWS, GCP, Azure), in local (Softline Cloud) and in private - from centralized billing and a single management console, to optimization of use and security, says Novikov.

First data centers in Africa

In April 2020, Amazon officially launched its first data centers in Africa - three sites located in Cape Town will join a network of nodes supporting Amazon Web Services (AWS), a public cloud platform.

The company announced its intention to open data centers in Africa in 2018. It is noteworthy that this has happened now - during the COVID-19 pandemic - when the demand for cloud services is growing, including due to the growth of users of video conferencing solutions, some of which are based on AWS.

The new data centers will reduce the burden on Amazon's infrastructure, although the main thing is different. The company will now be able to increase the share of African firms among its customers - as placing data centers closer to customers increases data transfer rates and reduces latency.

Cloud technologies contribute to the development of society and business in Africa. And we are honored to be part of this transformation, "said Peter DeSantis, senior vice president of global infrastructure and customer support at Amazon Web Services. - We have a long-term relationship with South Africa. We have supported the development of this region for over 15 years. During this time, local builders, developers, entrepreneurs and organizations have asked us many times to open AWS data centers in Africa. And today we responded to these requests.

As of early 2020, Amazon has data centers in,,,,,,,, Bahrain, USA,, To Canada Brazil Great Britain Sweden Germany France India Hong China Kong South Korea,]Singapore and Australia. The company plans to build data centers in,, Indonesia and Spain Italy another in. The AWS cloud Japan platform, for which the company is building a large number of data centers, brings Amazon more than 10% of total revenue.^[11]

2019

Revenue growth to $35 billion

In 2019, Amazon Web Services (AWS) revenue for the first time exceeded $35 billion and reached $35.03 billion. Profits also increased - $7.3 billion to $9.2 billion. At the same time, the operating costs of the Amazon cloud division are also growing: if in 2018 they were measured at $18.36 billion, then a year later - $25.83 billion.

AWS accounted for about 12.5% of revenue at the end of 2019 against 11% in 2018. The share of cloud business revenues is increasing, but the growth rate is decreasing as revenue reaches large values.

AWS's 12-month revenue reached $40 billion. The company reduced prices for customers with multi-year contracts and entered into long-term agreements for $30 billion, the conditions of which will be fulfilled in the long term.

In 2019, Amazon entered into contracts to use its cloud services with a number of large customers, including Western Union, Fox Corporation, Novartis, BP, German football Bundesliga and television company ProSiebenSat.1 Media SE.

We still see a lot of momentum among customers in industries ranging from startups to corporate clients to the public sector, "said Amazon CFO Brian Olsavsky, commenting on the success of the cloud division.

By the end of 2019, 175 AWS services are available to customers, up 75% from two years earlier. Gartner analysts estimate the company's share in the global cloud services market at almost 50% at the end of 2019.

There have been rumors that Amazon may split AWS into a new self-driving company, but the internet retailer has repeatedly denied them.^[12]

In an interview with CNBC in January 2020, AWS chief Andy Jassy said he did not expect the cloud division to secede anytime soon.

We simply do not see a significant reason to do this, "he said.

Amazon copies open source software and sells it in its cloud

In mid-December 2019, The New York Times (NYT) published an article in which it said that Amazon takes open source software and sells it in its cloud infrastructure. The company responded to this publication and denies everything.

During 2019, several publications appeared in the media about how the business of software manufacturers was undermined Open Source: Amazon Web Services (AWS) used free versions of their products and began to offer them as a fully managed cloud service.

For example, NYT reviewers cite Elastic. She, as stated in the article, Amazon copied the open ON and integrated it into its new service. Elasticsearch It turned out that Elastic began to compete with AWS, offering a service built on open source software, the development and support of which the company spent time and money. Elastic filed with Amazon, saying a competitor was illegally using its trademark.

The bad faith of Amazon and other developers led to the fact that the manufacturers of open solutions divided their products into freely distributed and licensed. The latter are intended for organizations wishing to use the product as a cloud service. For example, MongoDB and Redis switched to such a business model, according to the ComputerWeekly portal.

We were the first company to offer a semi-open license, "said Redis founder Ofer Bengal. Any organization that creates a database processor based on Redis technologies must receive a Source Available License.

Although open source software is generally free, manufacturers make money from such products by providing support services to organizations, providing commercial updates and bug fixes.

Previously, software mainly had to be installed on client servers, but with the advent of public cloud services such as AWS, this need began to disappear. The fact is that the software is placed in the cloud, and its manufacturer offers customers a service of complete product management.

NYT journalists interviewed several industry experts, and they talked about Amazon's difficult relationship with the Open Source community. The main dissatisfaction of the developers is that the company, according to them, takes an open source product and embeds its code in its AWS platform. Amazon then offers software that the company claims is fully compatible with the original open source project, but is distributed as a service on AWS.

In recent years, there has been a shift in the monetization of open-ended projects. After large cloud providers began offering the same services as open source software manufacturers, Open Source's original business models were threatened, says Aiven CTO and co-founder Heikki Nousiainen. - However, in the end, it is users who dictate what they will work with in the future. And these users prefer real open licenses to a greater extent and are looking for licenses that reflect the traditions of the Open Source community.

Andy Gutmans, vice president of analytics and solutions at ElastiCache at AWS, said in response to the NYT publication that open source projects allow any company to use software on their computers or in the cloud, as well as run services based on them.^[13]

Starting Veeam Backup for AWS

On December 5, 2019, Veeam Software announced the release of a cost-effective and secure native solution for Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) - Veeam Backup for Amazon Web Services (AWS). Veeam Backup for AWS is a dedicated backup solution within AWS that includes all of Veeam's powerful recovery capabilities. The solution will be available in a paid and free version on the AWS Marketplace. The solution is integrated with the company's flagship product, Veeam Backup & Replication, allowing Veeam users within a single platform to manage all of their data, whether hosted in cloud, virtual, or physical environments. Read more here.

ARIS Cloud Solution Availability

On August 1, 2019, it became known that Software AG's ARIS Cloud solution became available in the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Marketplace. Customers can now purchase it directly as Software as a Service (SaaS). Read more here.

2018

Revenue of $25.7 billion (+ 47%), which is more than McDonald's

In 2018, Amazon Web Services (AWS) revenue amounted to $25.7 billion, an increase of 47% compared to the previous year. Amazon earned more on cloud services than all of McDonald's: sales of the popular fast food chain reached a little more than $21 billion in 2018.

Amazon's cloud business continues to grow rapidly, but growth is declining. This could be expected, given the large sales volumes that the company has achieved, Quartz notes.

The AWS division earned Amazon more than 11% of revenue and more than half of its 2018 earnings. Profit in the cloud business in 2018 amounted to $7.3 billion against $4.33 billion a year earlier.

Profits increase despite rising costs. In 2018, they were measured at $18.36 billion, while in 2017 they were $13.13 billion.

In 2018, revenue for all of Amazon jumped 31%, with AWS contributing 47% to the climb. This is more than the contribution of the North American market (33%) and the rest of the countries combined (21%).

During a conference on the publication of Amazon's quarterly and annual reports, the company's CFO Brian Olsavsky said that spending on buildings and equipment used to operate cloud services will increase in 2019.

In 2018, AWS services covered two new regions, and by the first half of 2020 it is planned to master four more regions and 12 new accessibility zones within these regions.

In 2018, AWS had many new customers, including Ellie Mae, Korean Air, Santander Openbank and Pac-12. Mobileye and Guardian Life Insurance named AWS as their preferred cloud provider, and the National Australia Bank chose AWS as its long-term partner in terms of cloud service adoption.^[14]

Revenue growth in the segment of software platform solutions based on AI by 106.3%

Amazon Web Services professional vacancies up 107.15% in three years

In December 2018, job search portal Indeed published a study reporting rapidly growing demand for cloud computing professionals.

Thus, by the end of 2018, the number of vacancies in which knowledge is required Google Cloud soared by 1082% compared to three years ago. In the Amazon case of Web Services () clouds AWS Microsoft Azure , growth rates were 107.15% and 165.9%, respectively. More. here

2017

Record revenue of $17.5 billion amid giant US government orders

In 2017, Amazon Web Services (AWS) revenue amounted to $17.5 billion against $12.2 billion a year earlier. Amazon's cloud business rose from $3.1 billion to $4.3 billion during that time .

According to the publication "Vesti.Ekonomika" from 2014 to 2017. Amazon Web Services provided to the United States Government CIA(,, NSA, etc.) Pentagon their "cloud" data services, which have since accounted for virtually all of Amazon's profits, although Amazon is not even on the government's top 100 contractors list, USA so this extremely profitable business is more important to (Jeff Bezos also the owner of the Washington Post) than all his other investments, combined New^[15]

The cloud services division brings Amazon all the profits and about 10% of revenue. In 2016, the last figure was measured at 9%.

At the same time, expenses continue to grow in the unit: in 2017, they exceeded $13 billion, while in 2016 they amounted to $9.1 billion.

According to Amazon CFO Brian Olsavsky, AWS's 12-month revenue reached $20 billion during 2017.

There are several enterprise solution providers that have annual revenue approaching $20 billion, but Amazon is still growing faster - more than 40%, analysts at KeyBanc say.

Amazon's cloud business grew in 2017 despite strong competition from Microsoft and others, GeekWire noted. At the same time, Amazon's competitors do not disclose revenues from services designed to deploy cloud infrastructure, which the American Internet giant specializes in. Judging by the results of AWS, the division hardly lost any share of this market, the publication adds.

During a conference on the publication of the financial statements, Brian Olsavsky rejected the possibility of a branch of Amazon Web Services. According to the top manager, such a restructuring can be effective on the one hand, but on the other hand it will become a big problem. Both Amazon and AWS get more from working together, though to some extent they function separately from each other, Olsavsky reported.

In 2017, several large companies became AWS customers, including Expedia, Ellucian, DigitalGlobe and The Walt Disney Company.^[16]

1300 new features

At AWS re: Invent, which took place in Las Vegas from November 27 to December 1, 2017, Amazon announced a major update to its cloud infrastructure.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) solutions received 1,300 new features, while in 2016 the number of innovations was just over 1000.

Among the cloud innovations presented as part of AWS re: Invent 2017, it is worth highlighting the SageMaker service, designed to create a machine learning model. SageMaker implements ten well-known algorithms for supervised and uncontrolled learning. Processes can be run in parallel on dozens of instances, which greatly speeds up the construction of the model.

Solutions such as Amazon Rekognition (identifies objects and faces in custom videos), Amazon Transcribe (converts speech to text), Amazon Translate (language translator) and Amazon Comprehend (analyzes text for key phrases and emotional coloring) were also introduced.

In addition, new tools for Amazon Web Services allow you to record phone calls and study them, determining, for example, whether a client is happy with communication with a company employee or not. Thanks to these technologies, organization leaders can control the activities of their subordinates and train them.

According to Reuters, many of the services that Amazon introduced at the end of 2017 were launched by competitors earlier. For example, a language translator from Microsoft was launched back in 2011, and the Google Natural Language API, a rival to Amazon Comprehend, became available to the general public in November 2016. During 2017, Microsoft and Google launched several services that use the capabilities of artificial intelligence and have functionality similar to that used by Amazon in their products announced at AWS re: Invent 2017^[17]

Launch of the Secret Region service

Main article: Amazon Secret Region

In November 2017, Amazon introduced the Secret Region cloud service for the CIA and other intelligence agencies.

The word "Secret" in the name of the project means that it has the right to store software and data of the privacy category "Secret" - a step below the class "Top Secret." That makes Amazon's Web Services (AWS) cloud infrastructure attractive to intelligence agencies, which regularly deal with government secrets and other sensitive information.

Typo put Amazon cloud out of order for 5 hours

On February 28, 2017, Amazon Web Services (AWS) suffered a major outage that disrupted dozens of popular sites and apps. The cause of the malfunction was the human factor.

Problems have arisen in the cloud storage system Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3), the reliability of which in the company is estimated at 99, 999999999%. Amazon reported a "high level of errors" caused by problems on servers located on the west coast of the United States.

According to an official statement from Amazon, Amazon S3 technical support workers carried out regular maintenance of the billing system, for which they needed to disconnect several servers of the payment system. A simple typo caused "more servers than planned" to shut down. Among the disconnected were servers that ensured the performance of the other two S3 subsystems.

The AWS Service Health Dashboard (SHD) system, which displays the state of all S3 services, also functioned incorrectly: when almost nothing worked, SHD showed that everything was in order. Amazon had to inform customers of the real situation via Twitter.

The disconnected systems could not be restored for five hours. As it turned out, some of the deactivated servers were not restarted for many years. And since S3 has grown significantly in scale in recent years, "the process of restarting these services and conducting the necessary security and metadata integrity checks took longer than expected."^[18]

As a result of the failure of the Amazon cloud, large sites and services using S3 hosting were intermittent. In particular, there were problems with the music service Apple Music. In addition, popular   Western news publications, including The Verge and Business Insider, had problems with image storage for the site. The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) was also affected.

Our partners, who provide us with cloud services, reported that they faced problems that affected the loading of the sec.gov site , and that they were working to fix them  , the commission said.

AWS S3 also serves popular services such as Netflix, Spotify and Airbnb. While none of these services went offline as a result of the outage, users complained about bugs and slowing them down.

By about 1:00 on Wednesday, March 1, 2017, Amazon had fully restored the S3, after which no problems were observed. The media called this incident the largest Internet collapse since 2015.

After this failure, Amazon announced plans to implement new systems to ensure uninterrupted operation. As expected, the new measures will minimize the likelihood of "collapse" of tens of thousands of network resources due to a simple typo.

It is also planned to make changes to the overall S3 architecture in order to speed up the recovery of server health after a planned or unscheduled outage.

According to the SimilarTech portal, more than 148 thousand sites and 122 thousand unique domains, mainly located in the United States, use Amazon S3 services. Amazon cloud services prefer 0.8% of sites out of the million most popular resources on the Internet. For comparison, CloudFlare is used by 6.2% of sites.^[19]

Amazon increases the cost of services in Russia

From January 1, 2017, the cost of Amazon services will increase in Russia. Users who are not individual entrepreneurs or legal entities will pay another 18% VAT for using the Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud platform.

In Russia, from January 1, 2017, individuals, in addition to the cost of using Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud storage, will pay VAT in the amount of 18%. AWC or AWS Marketplace customers who are individual entrepreneurs or legal entities will have to confirm their status by December 31, 2016 by submitting data on the main state registration number (OGRN) or the main state registration number of an individual entrepreneur (OGRNIP).

Amazon's letter to users states: "If you do not provide information by December 31, 2016, AWS will be forced to charge VAT at an 18% rate on relevant services. You will always have the opportunity to enter information after the specified date. In this case, after making changes and receiving our confirmation message, you can request a refund of VAT paid after January 1, 2017 for each account under which the relevant information is entered to Customer Support. "

See also: 244-FZ "Google Tax"

2016

Record revenue of $12 billion

On February 2, 2017, Amazon released its financial results for the previous year. The company's revenues in the cloud market were record, but the growth rate is weakening.

In 2016, revenue from Amazon Web Services (AWS) amounted to $12.2 billion against $7.88 billion a year earlier. The company predicted cloud revenue of $10 billion at the end of the year.

AWS 'operating profit doubled, from 1.5 billion to 3.1 billion. dollars Operating expenses rose from $6 billion to $8.5 billion. Cloudy the business brings Amazon about 9% of turnover.

Cloud computing is driving profit growth. They really help the company be profitable every quarter, "said Louis Navellier, chairman of the board of investment company Navellier & Associates, in an interview with CNBC.

It is worth noting that AWS's revenue declined throughout 2016. In the fourth quarter, its growth was 47.5% against 55, 58% and 64% in the previous three calendar quarters, respectively. Analysts attribute the weakening dynamics of sales in the cloud services market to increased competition.

In 2016, the number of new services and functions included in Amazon Web Services increased by more than 1,000. In October-December alone, the number of innovations was measured at 308. In 2016, customers transferred more than 18,000 databases to the Amazon cloud using the AWS Database Migration Service tool.

By the end of 2016, AWS had 42 zones deployed in 16 regions of the world on which they were built. In data centers 2016, the company opened 11 such zones in,, USA, and South Korea. In India To Canada Great Britain 2017, it is planned to open 5 more zones in and. France China

After the financial statements were published, Amazon shares fell in price by more than 4% in electronic trading after the exchange closed on February 2, 2017. The slump in quotations came as the company's fourth-quarter earnings and first-quarter guidance were below Wall Street expectations.^[20]

3 reasons for AWS success

At the end of July 2016, Amazon management talked about the main factors that brought the Internet retailer closer to becoming the world's first company with annual cloud revenue of $10 billion.

In the first half of 2016, Amazon Web Services (AWS) revenues amounted to $5.5 billion. Thus, at the end of the year, revenue in this division of Amazon may amount to $11 billion.

We feel our leading positions and would like to strengthen them, - quotes the publication of Business Insider of Amazon CFO Brian Olsavsky, who at a press conference on the publication of quarterly reports, noted the growth of AWS and listed three main reasons contributing to this rise.

1. Functionality and pace of innovation development. In January-June 2016, AWS infrastructure was replenished with 422 new services and functions against 722 for the entire 2015. Olsavsky noted that Amazon continues to develop important areas such as data analytics and machine learning.

2. Partners and ecosystem. In the second quarter of 2016, AWS attracted such a cloud industry giant as Salesforce.com to cooperate, and also entered into contracts with a number of large customers (GE Oil & Gas, Kellogg's, Brooks Brothers, etc.) who decided to use AWS software launched in the cloud SAP. In addition, AWS expanded the infrastructure by opening a new data center in India. Thus, the number of regions in which Amazon data centers have been launched has reached 13.

3. Experience. Amazon is pioneering the market for public cloud services, Brian Olsavsky said. A powerful start allowed the company to break away from competitors and by the end of July 2016 earn four times more in the cloud market than the closest pursuer of Microsoft Azure.

At the same time, Amazon's financial director does not exclude that competitors can expand their presence, given the large size of the public cloud market. However, AWS will still remain the leader, he assured.^[21]

Salesforce.com rents Amazon data centers for $400 million for 4 years

In May 2016, Salesforce.com announced a $400 million cloud contract with Amazon, thanks to which the former expects to strengthen international expansion. Read more here.

2015

Revenue growth to $8 billion

On January 28, 2016, Amazon released a financial report detailing the development of its cloud business. Its growth slowed down, and its annual volume approached $8 billion.

At the end of 2015, AWS revenue amounted to $7.88 billion against $4.64 billion a year earlier. The operating profit of the cloud division during this period almost tripled, reaching $1.86 billion. Operating expenses rose by more than 50% and exceeded $6 billion.

In 2015, the number of new services and functions added to AWS increased by 722, which is 40% more than in 2014.

In the fourth quarter of 2015, AWS revenue jumped 69% compared to the same period of the previous year, but the growth rate was lower than in the third and second quarters, when the cloud business grew by 78% and 82%, respectively. At the same time, Amazon CFO Brian Olsavsky says that excluding currency fluctuations, AWS is showing a strong rise in both quarterly and annual terms.

Olsavsky also noted that at the end of 2015, the AWS division approached potential annual revenues of $10 billion.

We feel leadership in this market, but we don't take it for granted, "the financial director said on a conference call with analysts. - We want to improve customer service from year to year.

By the end of 2015, more than 1 million customers use AWS services, including such well-known services as Netflix and Airbnb. The cloud business is increasingly profitable for Amazon: in the fourth quarter of 2015, AWS operating margin rose to 28.5% from 16.9% in January-March of the same year. That rise, Brian Olsavsky said, came from the company's great work to improve business efficiency. In particular, the costs of purchasing new and operating existing servers and data centers were reduced, the top manager noted.^[22]

Q1: Cloud business revenue up 50% to $1.57 billion

On April 29, 2015, Amazon.com Inc published the results of the first quarter of 2015, which attracted the attention of investors^[23].

Revenue from the cloud business, compared to the previous year, grew by almost 50% and reached $1.57 billion, which amounted to about 7% of the total income of the Internet retailer. The operating income of the division grew by 8% and reached $265 million - a stable profit rate of 16.9%.

Jeff Bezos, head of Amazon, said: "Amazon Web Services is a five billion dollar business and is growing at an increasingly rapid pace."

Cloudy calculations turned out to be more profitable than expected, analysts noted. Cloud services Amazon make a profit, and a year ago they, apparently, were also profitable, nevertheless everyone thought that the company was losing money.

Total income Amazon in the first quarter of 2015 increased by 15% - to $22.72 billion - this turned out to be better than analysts' expectations ($22.39 billion), which caused the company's share price to rise. However, at the end of the quarter, Amazon reported a loss of $57 million (compared to a profit of $108 million in 2014), as it continued to invest in new products and services.

2014

Efficient approaches to encrypting sensitive data on the AWS platform

In its 2014 e-book, 6 Ways to Enhance Security in AWS SafeNet explains how companies can enforce legislation and show the security of sensitive data.

• Roots of Trust - Whether they are used to protect encryption keys or to authenticate devices, trust roots (or master keys) are components that, by definition, the system trusts when performing one or more security-critical functions and are used on both virtual security devices and tamper-proof hardware devices. The AWS CloudHSM service uses the tamper-resistant Luna® SA security hardware modules as the root of trust. As a result, customers get their sole use of devices in the AWS cloud that fully cover their encrypted storage needs. Luna modules meet the requirements of many international security standards and can be used with a wide variety of encryption protocols. All this allows organizations to verify compliance with strict standards regarding data processing and storage.
• Centralized Encryption Key Management - SafeNet Virtual KeySecure for AWS Marketplace enables organizations to quickly deploy centralized key management systems in high-resiliency clustered configurations using a secure virtual security appliance running in the AWS cloud. This solution securely stores encryption keys and manages encryption policies for AWS EC2 workloads, and ensures companies have full and ongoing control over their encryption keys. The SafeNet Crypto Management platform has the largest number of integration partners in the industry. The availability of this solution on AWS expands its capabilities and allows even more customers to use this solution to manage encryption keys in their organization.
• Encryption and Pre-Boot Authentication for EC2 and EBS - SafeNet ProtectV™ for AWS Marketplace enables full encryption of virtual machine instances and attached storage volumes, ensuring complete data isolation and task separation. The solution helps unify encryption and control processes across virtualized and cloud environments, improving security, and enforcing legal requirements for storing sensitive data on AWS EC2 instances. In addition, the ProtectV™ solution ensures that virtual machine instances can be started only after successful authentication before bootstrapping, that is, only by the owner of the virtual machine.
• Customer-Side Object Encryption for Amazon S3 - When integrated with the AWS SDK, SafeNet ProtectApp provides customers with controlled client encryption of objects stored on the Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3). ProtectApp acts as an encryption client that provides input keys to encrypt objects before loading them into storage, leaving unauthorized users unable to read the data, just as a cloud computing service provider will not be able to access application data.
• Data Encryption in DSS for AWS Storage Gateway - StorageSecure is a network-based encryption device that offers optimal protection for data stored in physical, virtual, or cloud storage environments. This is a transparent solution that allows organizations to maintain full control over data access by connecting a locally installed software device to AWS S3, resulting in comprehensive, secure integration of local environments for storing data in an AWS environment (or environment). The AWS Storage Gateway is installed on the customer's premises and connects to the StorageSecure service via the iSCSI protocol.
• File Encryption for EC2 and S3 Instances - SafeNet ProtectFile provides automated file-level encryption to protect unstructured data on networked drives and file servers. ProtectFile is installed with SafeNet KeySecure to encrypt unstructured files that contain sensitive data, including text documents, tables, bitmaps, and vector graphics. This comprehensive solution provides encryption policies and access control policies to protect specified folders and files with data-centric encryption.

Skolkovo joins Amazon Web Services Activate

In support of innovative startup projects in Russia, the Skolkovo Foundation has chosen Amazon Web Services (AWS) to provide all Foundation resident companies with a unique opportunity to participate in the AWS Activate (Amazon Web Services) program. This program, designed for young companies (less than 3 years, and less than $1.5 million in attracted investments), gives them free access to cloud resources and thereby contributes to their growth.

Amazon Web Services provides young startups with the services and technology infrastructure they need to grow their businesses. Many of the world's most prominent startups, including Pinterest, Spotify and Dropbox, use AWS's power to drive rapid growth in their business.

"Working with Amazon Web Services, the Skolkovo Foundation provides Russian startups with a unique opportunity to develop projects at a new technological level. In today's world, cloud technology is becoming more widespread in various areas. AWS services can be used by residents of all clusters of the Fund, "said Ivan Kireev, head of the cloud area of ​ ​ the Skolkovo Foundation's information technology cluster

.

Each Skolkovo member company receives:

• $1,000 AWS credits over 1 year
• Free access to AWS Essentials for 1 day or professional training (normal cost up to $600 per course)
• Free AWS Technical Professional Accreditation course, 8 keys for self-paced labs (normal cost up to $30/lab)
• Premium AWS Business Support for 1 month
• Free 1:1 virtual office hours access with AWS system architects
• Special offers from various startup companies including Chef, Bitnami, Amazon Payments, SOASTA, Podio, CopperEgg, etc.

All grantees of the Skolkovo Foundation receive:

• $10,000 AWS credits over 2 years
• Free access to AWS Essentials for 1 day or professional training (normal cost up to $600 per course)
• Free AWS Technical Professional Accreditation course, 8 keys for self-paced labs (normal cost up to $30/lab)
• Premium AWS Business Support for 1 year (up to $5,000)
• Free 1:1 virtual office hours access with AWS system architects
• Special offers from various startup companies including Chef, Bitnami, Amazon Payments, SOASTA, Podio, CopperEgg, etc.

Amazon Web Services opens data center in Germany

In October 2014, a new regional data center for Amazon began operating in Frankfurt. Until now, only the center in Ireland served European users, but Local Laws on the Protection of Personal Data do not allow their storage abroad, and many companies in Germany cannot use Amazon cloud services. In addition, it is the German leaders of IT services who express the greatest concern about reports of mass data interception by the US intelligence services, analysts^[24] point^[25].

Frankfurt has a developed network infrastructure. It is easier to find a dedicated fiber optic cable from Paris to Frankfurt than to Ireland, Amazon notes. At the same time, maintenance in the Frankfurt centre will be somewhat more expensive than in the Irish one due to higher electricity prices, salaries and other costs. The center will ensure the operation of two accessibility areas with independent power supply, cooling and security, connected by a high-speed network.

Germany plans to open its own centers and other well-known companies. VMware is set to launch its hybrid cloud platform in Germany early next year. Salesforce and Oracle also announced similar plans.

Gartner Magic Quadrant

In 2014, Gartner analysts published a magic quadrant in cloud services and cited Amazon's main strengths and weaknesses.

Strengths: AWS has built its cloud so that it can accept almost any workload, and this makes it popular with small firms, organizations with critical applications and web developers. The vendor's market share is not disputed by anyone - according to Gartner (2014), Amazon sells 5 times more computing power than the remaining 14 companies in the quadrant combined.

What to consider: The biggest claim to AWS is that all "supplements" are paid separately. Amazon doesn't create ready-made packages like some of its competitors. This lack of service and support especially alienates some users from it, since these items mean an additional line of expenses in their service bills.

2011

In February 2011, it became known that an agreement was concluded to provide technical support and optimize the operation of Citrix products and Windows applications that run on Amazon Web Services (AWS). The agreement will improve the compatibility and performance of AWS-based Windows applications while ensuring that the Xen virtual platform is constantly updated. Citrix plans to optimize the deployment of the commercial server virtualization platform Citrix XenServer, which will provide users with an easy transition from corporate data centers to the Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) infrastructure. As a result, AWS customers will be able to leverage Citrix's extensive expertise in virtualization and Windows application delivery optimization. The collaboration between Citrix and Amazon Web Services will bring the following benefits to users:

• • Enhanced interoperability - XenServer customers will be able to take advantage of the scalable and flexible AWS infrastructure and cloud-based pay-as-you-go computing. XenServer users will now be able to easily connect, navigate, and manage both AWS-based and XenServer-based virtual machines.
  • Windows Optimization - As a Windows virtualization and delivery expert, Citrix will use AWS technologies and optimize Windows copies for enterprise Windows application deployment on the AWS platform.
  • Advanced Cloud Solutions - Citrix will improve enterprise-critical cloud solutions such as disaster recovery, on-demand application delivery, improved security, and regulatory compliance.

Users of Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud services will be able to use DBMS Oracle 11g in the second quarter of 2011 as part of the Amazon Relational Database Service (Amazon RDS). Owners of valid Oracle licenses will be able to start using the service immediately without any additional costs. It will also be possible to use Oracle in the hourly rental mode for the actual computing capacity used. Oracle will be fully integrated into the existing AWS infrastructure, and users will be able to request the necessary resources in self-service mode using a unified web interface. They will also be able to slightly reduce the costs of maintaining the DBMS, since backups, installing updates and some other administration tasks will be performed on the Amazon side. Currently, access to Oracle under Amazon RDS is not yet provided, but Amazon invites interested users to try out the service in working with free. DBMS MySQL Since the user interface for the two DBMSs will be much the same, users can now begin preparing to use the database. Oracle

Worst Service Quality Agreement

The Amazon Web Services cloud system, named in 2012 by Gartner analysts as the leader among cloud providers involved in providing infrastructure as a service (IaaS), also received from them the dubious status of having the worst service quality agreement. However, a similar agreement for the recently launched HP Compute Cloud system could be even worse.

Both Amazon and HP have agreements that provide for a number of strict conditions that customers must meet in order for quality of service guarantees to take effect. For example, AWS requires the placement of applications in at least two availability zones (separate data centers), and the agreement will be considered violated only if both zones fail. HP guarantees customers compensation only if all zones are unavailable. Thus, the analyst believes, it is almost impossible for customers to achieve compensation for failures of the cloud system. Amazon and HP agreements don't even apply in the event of a storage failure.

The norm for IaaS providers is an agreement that does not require the placement of applications in several data centers. For example, Data Dimension, unlike Amazon and HP, guarantees 100% availability of virtual machines and full reimbursement of downtime.

"Cloud" Amazon Web Services (AWS) - a hotbed of malicious code

The "cloud" of Amazon Web Services (AWS) is a hotbed of malicious code that is used to steal financial data, Kaspersky Lab warns . (Adapted from CRN)

According to the company's expert Dmitry Bestuzhev, the Amazon cloud contains many inclusions of malicious code that can steal financial data. Some also believe that hackers used Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) cloud services to launch one of the attacks on the online entertainment network Sony in April and May.

"Recently, there were reports that the Amazon cloud served as a platform for successful attacks on Sony," Bestuzhev writes in a blog post about Amazon's problems. "Well, today I discovered that [the cloud] Amazon Web Services is now being used to sow code that steals financial information."

He found that the cybercriminals who organized these attacks were in Brazil and used several previously registered accounts. Bestuzhev writes that he warned Amazon about the presence of malicious code, but after 12 hours the dangerous links were still there and in effect.

These attacks on Sony, Bestuzhev writes, and the detection of malicious links in the Amazon cloud indicate that cybercriminals are increasingly using official cloud services as a springboard for their attacks.

The code he discovered for stealing financial data appears in several forms; it is delivered to the victim's computer and acts in various ways, Bestuzhev writes. In one such case, it acts as a rootkit; it searches for four different antiviruses and blocks their execution, as well as a special GBPluggin protection program used by many Brazilian banks for online transactions. This code is capable of stealing financial information from nine Brazilian and two international banks, stealing Microsoft Live Messenger identification information, digital certificates used by eTokens on its system, as well as CPU information, hard disk volume number, PC name and other data used by some banks for authentication when logging in.

Malicious code on Amazon transfers stolen data in two ways: by email to the cybercriminal's Google Gmail account or through a special php file that inserts it into a remote database. Moreover, Bestuzhev writes, the malicious code is protected by an official anti-piracy software called The Enigma Protector to make decompiling difficult.

All this shows, Bestuzhev writes, that cybercriminals will find more and more ways to use the cloud to launch their attacks, and cloud providers should strengthen security measures.

"I believe that official cloud services will continue to be used by criminals for cyber attacks of various types," Bestuzhev writes. "Cloud providers should consider improving their monitoring systems and expanding their security personnel to effectively stop attacks made from and with their cloud."

2010

Improve Mobile Application Development Tools

In 2010, Amazon announced tools to make it easier for developers to build mobile apps with access to the Amazon Web Services (AWS) platform. This was reported in the company's blog. AWS is a suite of cloud services including a storage service ( Amazon S3), a database hosting service, and an instant messaging implementation platform. Now all this can be done using the corresponding development tools package: AWS SDK for Android for creating applications for Android and AWS SDK for iOS for Apple iOS. New tools allow you to create photo and video sharing apps, social networks and real-time chat apps without the need to create a separate infrastructure.

PHP Development Service Launch

In October 2010, it became known^[26]Amazon began offering the Amazon Web Services SDK for PHP, which facilitates the development of PHP applications designed for execution in the Amazon cloud. The toolkit is designed to use PHP versions 5.2 and higher. With its help, developers can create applications using various elements of the Amazon cloud: the Simle Storage Service (S3), the Elastic Computing Cloud (EC2) computing service and the SimpleDB database. The development tools are CloudFusion tools. The AWS SDK for PHP includes an API library, code samples and documentation. Amazon can also get recommendations for switching from CloudFusion 2.5 to the AWS SDK for PHP. As Amazon emphasizes, CloudFusion will continue to exist as an open source project. The APIs that accompany Amazon cloud services can be used in any programming language. However, in order to ensure ease of use, the company offers ready-made development tools kits for a number of platforms: Java, Microsoft.NET and now PHP.

Notes