Amazon seems to be doing nearly everything today, and that includes offering cloud website solutions that are perfect for businesses of all sizes. They have a flexible and easy to use system that’s easy to scale as needed, and can keep the costs down so companies do not have to break the bank while they are getting their website and applications out to users. Of course, you will find a number of different choices, and it can become confusing.
Let’s examine what you need to do to get started with Amazon so you can get your site up and running as quickly and easily as possible. This will cover the basics of setting up a website with Amazon Web Services.
Signing Up
First, you will have to go to aws.amazon.com to set up your account, and then you will be able to get started. It’s very easy and straightforward to create an account, and even if you create an account, it does not bind you to work with the system if you ultimately choose to go elsewhere. First, we’ll look at some options in the Free Tier, and then look at some of the other traditional options for hosting a site with Amazon in the cloud.
What’s the Free Tier?
This is one of the best things about AWS by far. You are able to use the AWS Free Tier that will let you get actual experience using the system and tools for 12 months after you sign up. This gives you the chance to see if the system really is the best option for you.
It really is free, up to a point, as you will see. After you set up your AWS account, you will enter a billing address and credit card information. The only time you will receive a charge is if your usage goes over the free usage tiers. You can then choose from a number of different products to get your site set up. Some of the best options include the following.
- Amazon EC2 – Offers 750 hours per month of Linux, RHEL, SLES t2.micro instance usage, or 750 hours of Windows t2.micro instance usage.
- Amazon S3 – A scalable solution that offers 5 GB of standard storage, as well as 20,000 get requests and 2,000 put requests.
- AWS Lambda – 1M free requests each month and up to 3.2M seconds of compute time each month.
- AWS Key Management Services – 20,000 free requests per month.
- Amazon DynamoDB – 25 GB of storage, 25 units of write capacity, 25 units of read capacity, and can handle up to 200M requests a month.
- Amazon Cloud Front – 50 GB of data transfer out and 2,000,000 HTTP or HTTPS requests.
- Amazon RDS – 750 hours per month of single-AS Micro DB instance usage, 20 GB of DB storage, and 20 GB for backups.
- Amazon EBS – 30 GB of Amazon EBS, 2,000,000, I/Os, 1 GB of snapshot coverage.
You can use a variety of free and paid software products with the Free Tier as well. These include CentOS, LAMP Stack, Git, Bugzilla, WordPress, Magento, and more. With all of the choices, it should be relatively easy to find something that will work for the site you want to develop. It’s all free the first year unless you go above the usage mentioned in the bullets above.
Choosing Your Platform
Once you sign up, you are able to choose the platform that you want to use to get your site out to the world. They have a number of choices, and you can make your site as complex or as simple as you would like depending on your needs. You can even create a blog. Consider the various platforms available to see if they meet with your site requirements.
LAMP, which stands for Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP, is a solution stack that offers a wealth of open source and free software that will allow you to create dynamic sites capable of handling tens of thousands of requests at the same time. Windows Server 2008 R2 features IIS, Microsoft’s Internet Information Server for websites and .NET applications. Ruby on Rails is another open source web app framework that uses the Ruby programming language. WordPress, one of the most popular platforms that you can use with AWS, will allow you to create gorgeous blogs, as well as websites with a far more traditional feel to them.
All of these different platforms will launch very quickly and simply, often with the press of a button. Keep in mind that some of them are complex and will require that you or someone working for you knows specific programming languages. The simplest option for you to get started is WordPress. You can always make changes to it later if needed.
Launching
When you are ready, you can launch your virtual machine and deploy a web application or platform such as those discussed above. You can also store files, share media, and more. The launch takes just a few minutes and your site will be up and running. Of course, you have to make sure that the structure of your site is sound and that it’s “ready for prime time”. Do plenty of testing first so you can see how your site looks and functions before you release it to the general Internet browsing public.
Working with AWS Partners
When you set up a site, you can also learn about the AWS Partner Network, which is full of companies able to offer many different types of services. They can help with the migration of your site to AWS, offer cloud and mobile services, digital marketing, custom application development and more. Keep in mind that you do not have to use any of these services if you do not need them. They are simply there for those who need some technical expertise.
Ready to Go
You can create static sites, sites with Linux, and Windows, and even run a database with Amazon. It’s a quality offering, but it does have a honeycomb maze of different features and options that can be remarkably difficult to understand for those who are just starting out with building a website. You have other options that might work just as well or even better for you if you are looking for something very simple. Alternatively, you can have help from a web designer and IT pros to help you get your site working well with Amazon.
Amazon also has a wealth of information on their AWS site that will provide users with the help and tutorials they need if they get stuck at any point. Those who are just now considering setting up a site and who don’t have much experience will likely want to use the Free Tier offerings first, or work with a professional who can ensure their site looks great, functions, great, and is fully optimized.