💡 Services in this section appear occasionally in the exam, often as distractors (e.g. incorrect answers in an exam question). Still good to know what they are, in case they are not distractors, but you don't need to know more than their definition.
Media, Mobile & Webapp Support Services
- Amazon WorkSpaces: Desktop-as-a-Service (DaaS) → provision Windows/Linux desktops
- Spins an instance that hosts an OS Desktop (can connect to it, feels like logging to a laptop) → deploy instance close to users for better performance & lower latency
- Eliminates management of on-premise VDI (Virtual Desktop Infrastructure) → VDIs commonly used to remotely access on-prem infrastructure
- Amazon AppStream 2.0: application streaming service, can load a desktop app in a web browser
- Does NOT need a VDI!
- e.g. stream/load Blender, Paint, etc in a web browser
- AWS IoT Core: easily connect IoT devices to the AWS cloud, handles trillions of messages
- IoT = Internet of Things (e.g. car, front door, AC, TV, etc… many devices communicating in a local smart home NW via internet protocols)
- Amazon Elastic Transcoder: convert media files (e.g. videos) stored in S3 into other media formats
- AWS AppSync: serverless GraphQL APIs, for storing and syncing data across mobile & web apps in real time
- Many APIs follow REST paradigm, but GraphQL APIs are also popular
- AWS Amplify: develop and deploy scalable full-stack web and mobile applications
- Spins up infra and resources under the hood to handle authentication, storage, API (REST or GraphQL), CI/CD, PubSub, analytics, AI/ML, monitoring…
- 💡 Similar functionality that e.g. Vercel also provides
- AWS Device Farm: test your web & mobile apps by using desktop browsers, real mobile devices, and tablets
- âť—Â REAL devices (AWS-managed), NOT emulators!
Other AWS Services
- AWS Infrastructure Composer: visually design & build infrastructure in AWS
- Build your infra in a GUI (Graphical User Interface), auto-generate appropriate IaC with CloudFormation templates
- Can also visualize existing CFN/SAM templates to better see what you're deploying with that CFN stack
- AWS Fault Injection Simulator (FIS): fully-managed fault injection experiments on AWS workloads
- Based on chaos engineering → stress your infra by creating disruptive events (e.g. sudden increase in CPU, terminate an instance…)
- Tests infrastructure robustness and uncovers bugs & performance bottlenecks
- AWS Step Functions: serverless State Machines (SMs)
- Can create & visualize complex workflows to orchestrate many AWS services
- Lambda functions usually involved/triggered depending on state
- Human input can be required to proceed from one state to the other → use cases: online orders, data processing…
- AWS Ground Station: control & scale satellite communications and operations
- Global NW of satellite ground stations near AWS regions → can download satellite data to AWS very fast
- Use cases: weather forecasting, TV broadcasting…
- Amazon Simple Email Service (SES): automate sending emails
- Similar to how Amazon SNS automates notification sending (e.g. mobile SMS)
- Amazon Pinpoint: scalable 2-way (outbound & inbound) marketing communications
- Supports email, SMS, push, voice, and in-app messaging
- More powerful than Amazon SNS & SES
- Scales to billions of messages per day
- No need to manage each message's audience, can just target segments
- Use case: run campaigns by sending bulk marketing messages
- Can track sent messages, delivery success, and also receive replies to messages
AWS OpsWorks: configuration management service, uses managed instances of Chef and Puppet
- Hybrid service: Chef and Puppet automate how servers are configured, deployed and managed across EC2 instances or on-premises servers
- âť—Â Discontinued!!