Foundational AWS Services for Dynamic Web Application Development

Foundational AWS Services for Dynamic Web Application Development

I. Security & Identity Management

AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM): Manages users, groups, roles, and permissions to control access to AWS resources. (Absolutely essential)

II. Networking & Connectivity

Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (VPC): Creates a private, isolated virtual network for your AWS resources.

Components within VPC: Subnets (public/private), Internet Gateway (IGW), Route Tables, Security Groups, NAT Gateway. (Absolutely essential)

Amazon Route 53: Provides highly available and scalable Domain Name System (DNS) services. Used for domain registration and routing traffic to your application. (Essential for public-facing apps)

III. Compute (Where your code runs)

Amazon EC2 (Elastic Compute Cloud): Provides resizable virtual servers (instances) to host your backend application code. (Commonly essential for traditional web apps)

AWS Lambda (Serverless Compute): Runs your code without provisioning or managing servers. Great for event-driven APIs and microservices. (Alternative/Complement to EC2 for modern apps)

IV. Databases (Where your data lives)

Amazon RDS (Relational Database Service): A fully managed relational database service (e.g., MySQL, PostgreSQL, MariaDB). (Essential for relational data)

Amazon DynamoDB (NoSQL Database): A fully managed, high-performance NoSQL database for key-value and document data. (Useful for specific use cases or serverless architectures)

V. Storage & Content Delivery

Amazon S3 (Simple Storage Service): Object storage for static content (images, videos, CSS, JS), backups, and logs. (Essential for any web app with static assets)

Amazon CloudFront (Content Delivery Network - CDN): Speeds up content delivery by caching content globally at edge locations. (Highly recommended for performance)

VI. Load Balancing & Scaling

Elastic Load Balancing (ELB) - Application Load Balancer (ALB): Distributes incoming web traffic across multiple EC2 instances for high availability and performance. (Crucial for scalable web apps)

AWS Auto Scaling (Groups): Automatically adjusts the number of EC2 instances in your application based on demand. (Crucial for scalable web apps)

VII. Monitoring & Management

Amazon CloudWatch: Monitors AWS resources and applications, collects logs and metrics, and enables setting alarms. (Essential for operations and troubleshooting)

AWS Systems Manager (SSM) - Session Manager: Securely manages EC2 instances without needing public SSH ports. (Highly recommended for EC2 administration)