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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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
Amarjit Rathee - PeerSpot reviewer
Associate Vice President at Hitachi Systems, Ltd.
Real User
Top 5
Has good scalability
Pros and Cons
  • "The scalability is a valuable feature."
  • "The pricing is expensive"

What is our primary use case?

We are using it for certain business applications.

What is most valuable?

The scalability is a valuable feature. 

What needs improvement?

The improvement should be done as per business needs. 

For how long have I used the solution?

I have been using Amazon AWS for five years. 

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

It is a stable solution. 

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

It is a scalable solution. Presently, 3,000 users are using the solution. 

How was the initial setup?

The initial setup is straightforward. 

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

The pricing is expensive. 

What other advice do I have?

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

Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

Public Cloud
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
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Manager of DevOps at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees
Real User
It's easy to configure and has high availability
Pros and Cons
  • "AWS is easier to implement than other solutions, and it's more reliable."
  • "Amazon support could be better."

What is our primary use case?

AWS is deployed into a public cloud. We have five lines and everything is autotomized. We are using several AWS solutions, including Containers, Pierre, Stargate, and Lambda. We have several projects in production, but I can't disclose more details because it's confidential. 

What is most valuable?

AWS is easier to implement than other solutions, and it's more reliable. 

What needs improvement?

It would be helpful for us if we could easily integrate Oracle RDS with AWS. That would work well with the solutions we have in place.

What do I think about the stability of the solution?

AWS is stable.

What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

We can quickly add resources with AWS when necessary. Our company currently has 200 users working with AWS.

How are customer service and support?

Amazon support could be better.

How was the initial setup?

Deploying AWS is easy. The amount of time it takes depends on the application. I couldn't give a precise estimate of the number of minutes. We have four engineers to manage and maintain the solution.

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

We pay about $20,000 per month, and the license is all-inclusive. 

Which other solutions did I evaluate?

We are compared AWS with Azure and IBM Cloud, but in the end, we decided to work with AWS.

What other advice do I have?

I rate Amazon AWS 10 out of 10. For me, it's perfect. AWS is effortless to configure and has high availability. 

Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
PeerSpot user
Amarjit Rathee - PeerSpot reviewer
Associate Vice President at Hitachi Systems, Ltd.
Real User
Top 5
Secure, highly scalable, and reliable
Pros and Cons
  • "Amazon AWS has improved a lot on security and is very good. Additionally, You can integrate your own security into their AWS platform."

    What is our primary use case?

    Amazon AWS can be used for storage, networking, and for many of the services they have available, such as databases, new site launches, and quick deployments.

    What is most valuable?

    Amazon AWS has improved a lot on security and is very good. Additionally, You can integrate your own security into their AWS platform.

    The reporting and analytics monitoring are very good features and we are using them extensively.

    For how long have I used the solution?

    I have been using Amazon AWS for approximately seven years.

    What do I think about the stability of the solution?

    I have found Amazon AWS to be stable.

    What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

    Amazon AWS is highly scalable.

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

    We have previously used older servers solutions from Dell, HP, and IBM.

    How was the initial setup?

    The installation of this solution is straightforward.

    What about the implementation team?

    The amount of people we need for the deployment depends on the use case and what type of business operations you are running. You can start with one resource based on the requirements and you can add the people as you need them. The majority of the people you will need will be for DevOps and you can scale your team as per your requirements. You can start with one at the beginning stage but you could end up needing a hundred thousand people but this depends on the business growth and many factors.

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

    The pricing model of Amazon AWS is very good because there is an option to pay for what you use only, you do not have to give any money upfront to use it. However, we have some instances where we are on a monthly plan.

    When you compare Amazon AWS to Microsoft Azure, the pricing of both is almost the same. There are some instances when one is cheaper than the other in one area but it is difficult to pinpoint which one is cheaper because it depends upon a lot of factors, such as the use case. However, the overall price of both solutions could be reduced.

    Which other solutions did I evaluate?

    I have evaluated Microsoft Azure.

    What other advice do I have?

    A lot of organizations are moving from on-premise solutions to the cloud. There are a lot of case studies already in the marketplace which you can go there and find case study solutions to your business requirements.

    I would recommend this solution to others.

    I rate Amazon AWS a nine out of ten.

    Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

    Public Cloud
    Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
    PeerSpot user
    President at Embedded Sense, Inc.
    Real User
    Helpful documentation, great technical support, and good scalability
    Pros and Cons
    • "The initial setup is simple and straightforward."
    • "There is a bit of a learning curve. That said, it's likely no different than learning any other cloud."

    What is our primary use case?

    We primarily use the solution to host our control panel for our IoT devices.

    What is most valuable?

    The solution has very good documentation.

    The initial setup is simple and straightforward.

    The solution is scalable.

    The stability has been good.

    We have found the technical support to be helpful and responsive. 

    What needs improvement?

    I cannot recall feeling there were any features missing.

    There is a bit of a learning curve. That said, it's likely no different than learning any other cloud.

    The pricing could be a bit lower, even though its costs are in the middle of the road.

    For how long have I used the solution?

    I've used the solution for about half a year. It hasn't been 12 months yet.

    What do I think about the stability of the solution?

    The stability is good. There are no bugs or glitches. It doesn't crash or freeze. It's quite reliable. 

    What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

    I would imagine the scaling is very good. It's advertised as quite scalable and everything points to that being the case. However, I have not personally attempted to scale. We're still building the application, and therefore we aren't at the point of scaling.

    We have three people using the solution currently.

    How are customer service and technical support?

    Technical support is very helpful and responsive. They have been good so far. We have no complaints and are quite satisfied with the support we receive.

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

    We did not use a different solution. We chose Amazon due to its good documentation and middle-of-the-road costs.

    How was the initial setup?

    While I wasn't a part of the initial implementation, it's my understanding that the process is very simple and straightforward. It's not an overly complex process. 

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

    The cost is moderate. It's not overly expensive.

    What other advice do I have?

    We are just customers and end-users. We don't have a business relationship with Amazon.

    I'm not sure which version of the solution we're using. 

    I'd recommend the solution. It's a good choice and one we stand behind.

    I'd rate the solution at an eight out of ten. We are very satisfied with the product so far. Likely, if the price was lower, we would rate it higher.

    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
    Information Security Officer at GlobalSign
    Vendor
    Do not need to maintain hardware on-premises and can have full control over the infrastructure
    Pros and Cons
    • "The main reason why we use EC2 is because we are not dependent on maintaining the hardware inside our premises. Also, we have full control over the infrastructure, and we can modify it as per our own requirements."
    • "Monitoring still needs to be improved."

    What is our primary use case?

    We are a product cocktail service company, and we deliver identity-based solutions that customers can subscribe to. The back-end infrastructure is hosted in AWS.

    How has it helped my organization?

    It helps us by saving money. Having a physical server on our premises is, of course, quite expensive as compared to building an EC2 instance in the cloud.

    What is most valuable?

    We use AWS in-built services like EC2, ECS, Lambda services, CloudTrail, CloudWatch, etc. AWS is a very big platform that provides a lot of services.

    The main reason why we use EC2 is because we are not dependent on maintaining the hardware inside our premises. Also, we have full control over the infrastructure, and we can modify it as per our own requirements.

    It is stable and scalable as well.

    Installation is quite easy.

    What needs improvement?

    Monitoring still needs to be improved.

    Better support for Windows Operating Systems would be appreciated. It is good for Linux but needs to improve for Windows.

    For how long have I used the solution?

    I've been dealing with Amazon AWS for more than four years now.

    What do I think about the stability of the solution?

    We are experiencing 99.9% uptime already, so we have had no issues with stability.

    What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

    It is scalable. We have configured our Auto Scaling options there, which enables us to install as the requirements increase. It auto scales the server.

    How are customer service and technical support?

    Technical support is okay. I will not rate it too high, but I think it might be because it is part of a basic plan. We do not have the enterprise support plan.

    How was the initial setup?

    You don't require much technical expertise to have an instance, so the initial setup is quite easy.

    What other advice do I have?

    On a scale from one to ten, I would rate Amazon AWS at nine.

    Which deployment model are you using for this solution?

    Hybrid Cloud
    Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
    PeerSpot user
    Enterprise architect at a computer software company with 201-500 employees
    Real User
    Stable with good native tools and a relatively easy initial setup
    Pros and Cons
    • "The solution has very good Lambda functions within AWS."
    • "The pricing could be more competitive."

    What is our primary use case?

    We primarily use the solution for our partner.

    We are using it for moving all the banking and insurance domains from on-premises systems to the cloud platform, which is managed by services. It is right from data integration, data inception to data processing, to advanced visualization and analytics. We are also using the AI and machine learning aspects as well.

    What is most valuable?

    We have been using the data ingestion. 

    There are native tools which are AWS Glue, which we are using for data integration. 

    We also use the Spark and Python-based integration which are both very good. 

    The solution has very good Lambda functions within AWS.

    We also use AWS Redshift for data modeling along with the integration with Snowflake.

    The solution is very stable.

    The scalability is excellent.

    We've found the initial setup to be quite simple and straightforward.

    Technical support is pretty good.

    What needs improvement?

    The pricing could be more competitive.

    There need better integration tools whereby you could have widgets. It already technically has this, however, if they had widgets that could help with the journey from an on-premises legacy database management system, that would be ideal. There should be some accelerators that can convert and automate data pipelines into AWS so that users don't have to start from scratch. 

    Basically, if we had accelerators and tools that can help fast track and leverage existing data schemas, models, and then also, data pipelines that are already set up, it would help items to be quickly migrated rather than doing everything from scratch on the cloud.

    For how long have I used the solution?

    We've used the solution for a couple of years. It's been a while.

    What do I think about the stability of the solution?

    The stability of the solution is very good. The product does not have any bugs or glitches. It doesn't crash or freeze. It's reliable. 

    What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

    The solution is the number one cloud product. It is extremely salable. A company shouldn't have any trouble expanding it.

    From a user perspective, I would say from accounts, we are primarily into banking and insurance. We have around four to five of our banking accounts using it. They are a mid-scale bank. 

    We do plan to continue using the product.

    How are customer service and technical support?

    Technical support is good. Overall, they are the number one cloud provider and they have an overall very high market capitalization. The support they have on offer is very good. We're satisfied with the level of service they offer.

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

    We have also used the Azure platform as well.

    How was the initial setup?

    The initial setup is easy. It's not overly complex. The deployment depends, however, it could take a few hours to maybe a day, as it is platform and software as a service. It is all managed by AWS. The installation and management require a bare minimum configuration.

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

    The cost structure could be better. It needs to be more transparent. After COVID, it is competing directly with Azure - which is a bit more of a cost-effective option. It's also competing directly with Google. If they were cheaper, they would be much more competitive in the space.

    From a licensing perspective, the cost of ownership is based on usage. 

    What other advice do I have?

    We are consultants.

    We are using the latest version of the solution. I cannot recall the exact version number at this time.

    I'd rate the solution at a nine out of ten. We've enjoyed its capabilities so far.

    I would recommend this solution to other companies and organizations.

    There's a lot of due diligence which happens before organizations choose cloud solutions and then, of course, it needs to fit into the scenario. There is a cost-benefit analysis that has to be performed. It's a good idea to compare it to other platforms as well. Companies need to make sure it factors in the strategic landscape and the tools and technologies that the organization already has. If clients need assistance, we do participate in those strategic initiatives.

    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
    Sr. Technology Specialist at a computer software company with 5,001-10,000 employees
    Real User
    Cloud computing services with useful analytics feartures.
    Pros and Cons
    • "I like many features, like the recently released useful analytics features. There are many from the data analytics or database side."
    • "The price could be better. Support for data analytics could be better. I don't see much support for data analytics. They have a lot of support in Azure, but I don't see a lot of innovation on the data analytics side in AWS."

    What is our primary use case?

    We mainly use AWS for migrating onto the cloud or for analytic services and machine learning. 

    What is most valuable?

    I like many features, like the recently released useful analytics features. There are many from the data analytics or database side.

    What needs improvement?

    The price could be better. Support for data analytics could be better. I don't see much support for data analytics. They have a lot of support in Azure, but I don't see a lot of innovation on the data analytics side in AWS.

    For how long have I used the solution?

    I have been dealing with Amazon AWS for the last two years.

    What do I think about the stability of the solution?

    AWS is a stable and flexible solution.

    What do I think about the scalability of the solution?

    AWS is a scalable product.

    How are customer service and technical support?

    Technical support is customer-friendly and knowledgeable.

    How was the initial setup?

    The initial setup and installation are straightforward. They have very good documentation, and if you can follow the script, you can do it. I was trying to do it with the Datacom script, and I was able to make services like VPC and EC2 in the database cloud seamlessly.

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

    The prices are somewhat on the higher side. It would help if they can bring it down, especially for the sporting segment and for on-demand instances.

    What other advice do I have?

    I would recommend Amazon AWS to potential customers.

    On a scale from one to ten, I would give Amazon AWS a nine.

    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
    Buyer's Guide
    Download our free Amazon AWS Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.
    Updated: April 2024
    Buyer's Guide
    Download our free Amazon AWS Report and get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions.