Ever since its inception in 2012, AWS (Amazon Web Services) has gained quite a lot of traction and become an instant web juggernaut. That shouldn’t be a surprise since in a business climate where everything was moving to Cloud and streaming, going one step further and offering on-demand virtual computing, from today’s perspective, seems all too logical.
In the years since, Amazon pretty much cornered the market and become a common asset used by web giants like Netflix, Comcast, and others. But, as of recently, AWS started gaining an ever-growing presence in the SMB sector as well, which opens up the door for some entirely new possibilities.
So, what is this technology about, and what benefits can it bring to your small-medium business? Let’s try to find out.
What is AWS technology?
If you are still unfamiliar with the term, AWS, like we have briefly mentioned in the introduction, is a software platform that offers companies of all scales and sizes. The service emulates most of the attributes of the on-site computers, including CPU, SSD storage, graphics processing, a choice of modern operating systems, etc. Besides these basics, AWS offers a plethora of pre-loaded services like web servers, customer relationship management, and virtual databases.
With all things said, we can summarize that Amazon Web Services represents an API whose overall goal is to provide cloud-computing services on a pay-as-you-go model to organizations that don’t have a developed IT infrastructure.
Therefore, although it has been first adopted and speared through by industry juggernauts, the service has a lot to offer to small and medium businesses that are still experiencing growing pains and don’t have the benefit of all on-site assets they need for successful operations.
The benefits of AWS for small businesses
Now that we got a good grasp of what AWS is and what it has to offer, let us move the story firmly into the SMB yard and take a look at a couple of compelling reasons why you should consider using this powerful asset in your organization.
Eliminating infrastructure costs
Like many other subscription-based services, AWS is charging only for the services that are currently being used. This makes life a lot easier for small organizations that experience seasonal demand spikes and don’t utilize 100% of their IT resources all the time. But, even if we put this topic aside, we can agree that developing in-house IT infrastructure and maintaining all in-house assets can be very expensive, even for larger organizations. With its flexible on-demand model, AWS effectively eliminates this issue.
Excellent opportunities for outsourcing
Even despite this flexible subscription-based pricing model, running and managing complex cloud infrastructure is still a very complex task that requires well-trained and experienced staff. However, the cloud nature of this virtual platform presents a solution to this problem built into its very core. Namely, since it allows easy remote access, you can always leave this responsible task to companies providing managed AWS service and avoid developing these teams on your own. Similarly, you can outsource all the associated services (e.g., CRM) to remote teams with more experience in the field.
Cost-effective scaling and migration opportunities
As all business owners know, expansion, migration, and overhaul of business assets is a very taxing process. Things are not different in the IT realm, where something as simple as a switch to a new OS or software update discrepancies can cause serious issues and productivity drops. Even though it is not as problematic, downscaling leaves the companies with unused assets they need to drop or resell, which always creates losses. Here lies one of the greatest strengths of platforms like AWS – infrastructure migration and scaling are performed with only a couple of links with complete preservation of data integrity.
Top-tier built-in security
Cyber-criminal is one of the most serious threats to the modern business environment. During the previous year, when most companies were forced to switch to remote working due to the outbreak of COVID-19, this problem became painfully evident. Recent research found that the pinching attacks rose a staggering 600% since the end of February 2020, while the US observed 145.2 million ransomware by the end of the year. Dealing with these attacks requires top-tier digital security and substantial investments. Amazon and its subsidiaries made this job considerably easier by supplying AWS with one of the most robust security packages in the industry.
We hope this short overview gave you some general idea about the potential and the benefits Amazon Web Services can bring to your small or medium business. Being an Amazon product, AWS has long carried the moniker of being the cutting-edge services for premium users too expensive for smaller organizations. Still, to get a complete picture, we have to take into account the resources you need to invest for acquiring, running, and maintaining the appropriate IT equipment. When looked at from this perspective, AWS shines in an entirely different light.
