Simply AWeSome - Amazon Web Services in Brief
Immediately after its 10th anniversary, AWS held an AWSome Day IT park - our technology park was among the lucky ones, where it took a free AWS cloud technology training course. Taking advantage of the opportunity, we interviewed Sergei Rakovsky, an AWS customer relationship manager in Russia and the CIS.
- Sergey, please tell us about the infrastructure and how AWS works.
To give you an idea of ​​how we are structured and to explain our terminology, let's start with the fact that in our company there is the concept of “regions”. Regions are the geographic location of our computing infrastructures. AWS regions include services such as Amazon EC2, Amazon S3, Amazon RDS and many others. Regions are divided into so-called availability zones (Availability Zones). Availability zones (hereinafter referred to as ZD) are certain zones that are designed so as not to depend on failures in other ZDs, they provide an inexpensive connection with low latency with other ZDs in the same region. For example, each ZD operates on different Tier 1 networks, on different electrical networks and, in some cases, different seismic zones. ZDs consist of one, sometimes several, data centers - some of the ZDs have 6 data centers each. So that you can assess the scale of the data centers that make up our ZD - usually the number of servers in them is about 50,000, and often more than 80,000.
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Along with the AWS regions, we also have Edge Locations border points (sometimes referred to as Points of Presence) all over the world, where we host our Amazon CloudFront and Amazon Route 53 services.
When choosing new locations for Edge Locations and regions, we listen to our customers to understand where our infrastructure is most needed.
- What kind of hardware do you use?
In our data centers we use special servers and storage systems. Each server is adapted and optimized for a specific workload. We also collect special microcircuits designed for our loads, the operating frequencies of which significantly exceed the frequencies of mass-produced microcircuits. We also have our own solutions for building networks (network), hardware, and a protocol stack. Having this set of services, we can provide our customers with a high level of availability at a lower price. We also have our own fiber-optic channels to connect all our international regions among themselves, and within the same region we have more than 82,000 fibers that connect all our ZDs to each other — more than 25 terabytes, moving between ZD every second.
This allows us to give customers a high level of security along with increased availability, increased productivity, reduced jitter and at a lower cost. Since we save the cost of maintaining our infrastructure, we are able to reduce prices for our customers. Today, AWS has cut prices 51 times without any pressure from competitors.
- AWS has just celebrated its 10th anniversary. What is your main achievement for this moment and what are your plans for the future?
One of the main trends we have witnessed since the launch of AWS in 2006 was the democratization of the IT industry. AWS was able to increase competition in the industry, as it provided access to small business resources that were previously unavailable and are often possible with significant costs. AWS sets the stage for companies to grow and helps them become well-known brands. Over the past 10 years, AWS has watched startups use cloud technologies to grow and serve customers around the world, with vivid examples: AirBnB, Spotify, and Pinterest.
On the other hand, some of the largest and oldest companies in the world now also use AWS to accelerate the development of innovations within their organizations and achieve the same agility and flexibility as start-ups.
Companies such as General Electric, Shell, Philips, Pfizer and many others use AWS for critical missions. Customers from highly regulated industries such as the public sector, energy sector, financial services, oil and gas, and transportation sectors are moving large amounts of their infrastructure to AWS around the world. We now have over a million customers using the platform every month.
- In the Gartner quadrant, AWS is in fourth position for the fourth time. How do you do it?
Innovation sits in our DNA, and our structure, approach to product development, and delivery are fundamentally different from IT solutions from other suppliers. We have decentralized, autonomous development teams that work directly with our customers. They have the opportunity to develop and launch products based on what they learned during their interaction with consumers. We constantly introduce new products and provide customers with constant access to the latest innovations - there is no need for updates, deployments or relocations. When the addition or improvement is ready, we release it, and it is in constant access for any customer using this service.
This approach also allows us to quickly launch and implement new services. For example, since 2006, we have launched 70 large-scale new services, which we constantly improve on the basis of reviews, customer needs and their use of the product.
- AWS has over 1 million users. How do you plan to increase the number of customers?
We are experiencing a change of technology that is different from any other revolution in our time, and it is happening at an amazing speed — much faster than anyone could have foreseen. We are sure that the hour will come when only very few companies will have their own data center, which means one thing - most applications move to the cloud. It also becomes completely obvious that cloud technologies are no longer perceived as something supernatural.
Ultimately, this means that each industry will be able to develop innovations in new directions: from personalized medicine to a better understanding of our world and university education available to hundreds of thousands around the world, new business models of traditional industries and the advent of of the world ”- we are only at the beginning of what is possible with cloud technologies.
- One of the important aspects for you must be safety. Tell us a little about your approach to this issue in AWS.
Customer confidence is our priority, and we work day and night so that our customers around the world can work reliably on AWS, in accordance with the laws and without failures.
Since we launched services in 2006, AWS has received many international certificates and accreditations that demonstrate compliance with standards such as ISO 27001, ISO 27018, ISO 9001, PCI DSS Level 1, SOC 1, 2 & 3, HIPAA , FedRAMP / FISMA, DoD CSM level 1 & 2 and the recently added ISO 27017. We constantly listen to our customers and consider obtaining other certificates in the future.
It is also worth noting that customers retain ownership of their own content and choice, which AWS services can process, store and host their data. Clients determine which ZD will store their information, in full confidence that their data will not be moved anywhere without their consent.
While using infrastructure in the AWS regions, our customers also gain access to advanced security tools and services that provide numerous additional security levels and technical capabilities. We also give customers the ability to encrypt data (transmitted in data) and stored information (data at rest), where only the consumer has access to encryption keys. Encrypted content is completely inaccessible without the corresponding decryption keys.
- What can you tell us about security inside Amazon EC2?
Security passes through the red line through not only all layers of the AWS infrastructure, but also through all its services. AWS services are built to work efficiently and securely with all AWS networks and platforms. Each service provides extensive security controls to enable customers to protect sensitive information and applications.
Amazon EC2 is designed to make online scaling of computing resources easier, allowing consumers to capture and configure capacity without difficulty. Clients create and launch instances, which are a platform hardware-software mix.
Security inside Amazon C2 is built on multiple levels: the operating system (OS) on the host platform, the virtual instance OS or the guest OS, firewalls and signed API calls. Each of these components is built on the capabilities of the other components. The goal is to prevent the interception of information contained within Amazon EC2 by unauthorized systems and users, and to provide Amazon EC2 with instances that are as secure as possible without reducing the configuration flexibility required by customers.
Read more about security in AWS here .
- Which AWS products are the least and most popular?
The cloud has become a new norm, as now companies of different levels by default place new applications in the cloud and tend to move there as much as possible of existing applications and as quickly as possible. Therefore, we see how consumers use all AWS technologies, ranging from our fundamental services to services of a higher level. I can't tell you which is the most popular service we have, but here are some statistics: Amazon Aurora is the fastest growing service in AWS history, Amazon RDS has over 100,000 active users and AWS database services, including Amazon RDS, Amazon DynamoDB, Amazon Redshift and Amazon ElastiCache are a multibillion-dollar (in dollar terms) business, not including Amazon itself.
- What could be the reasons for the rejection of * aaS models? Are there any differences in this regard between Russian and European consumers?
I believe that there is no reason to abandon the cloud technology. The cloud gives customers increased flexibility, speed and versatility with greater security and lower prices.
- How does your company encourage its employees?
Amazon is an equal opportunity company that seeks to hire and develop the best employees. Whether our development centers or working with clients and partners, we provide a full range of benefits and benefits for employees and their families. This is how we achieve rapid growth and continue to grow and hire some of the most talented technicians around the world. For your readers who are interested in working with Amazon or AWS, I would recommend visiting www.amazon.jobs
- How often do you arrange a planning meeting in your company?
AWS is a customer-oriented company. Therefore, we try to spend as much time as possible with our customers. From time to time we have “flyers”, but still we prefer them to spend time with our customers.
- Did you like in Kazan and, in particular, in the IT park?
Our team really enjoyed it. The customers we met had asked interesting questions and are currently creating innovative AWS applications. Looking forward to the next meeting!
- Sergey, please tell us about the infrastructure and how AWS works.
To give you an idea of ​​how we are structured and to explain our terminology, let's start with the fact that in our company there is the concept of “regions”. Regions are the geographic location of our computing infrastructures. AWS regions include services such as Amazon EC2, Amazon S3, Amazon RDS and many others. Regions are divided into so-called availability zones (Availability Zones). Availability zones (hereinafter referred to as ZD) are certain zones that are designed so as not to depend on failures in other ZDs, they provide an inexpensive connection with low latency with other ZDs in the same region. For example, each ZD operates on different Tier 1 networks, on different electrical networks and, in some cases, different seismic zones. ZDs consist of one, sometimes several, data centers - some of the ZDs have 6 data centers each. So that you can assess the scale of the data centers that make up our ZD - usually the number of servers in them is about 50,000, and often more than 80,000.
')
Along with the AWS regions, we also have Edge Locations border points (sometimes referred to as Points of Presence) all over the world, where we host our Amazon CloudFront and Amazon Route 53 services.
When choosing new locations for Edge Locations and regions, we listen to our customers to understand where our infrastructure is most needed.
- What kind of hardware do you use?
In our data centers we use special servers and storage systems. Each server is adapted and optimized for a specific workload. We also collect special microcircuits designed for our loads, the operating frequencies of which significantly exceed the frequencies of mass-produced microcircuits. We also have our own solutions for building networks (network), hardware, and a protocol stack. Having this set of services, we can provide our customers with a high level of availability at a lower price. We also have our own fiber-optic channels to connect all our international regions among themselves, and within the same region we have more than 82,000 fibers that connect all our ZDs to each other — more than 25 terabytes, moving between ZD every second.
This allows us to give customers a high level of security along with increased availability, increased productivity, reduced jitter and at a lower cost. Since we save the cost of maintaining our infrastructure, we are able to reduce prices for our customers. Today, AWS has cut prices 51 times without any pressure from competitors.
- AWS has just celebrated its 10th anniversary. What is your main achievement for this moment and what are your plans for the future?
One of the main trends we have witnessed since the launch of AWS in 2006 was the democratization of the IT industry. AWS was able to increase competition in the industry, as it provided access to small business resources that were previously unavailable and are often possible with significant costs. AWS sets the stage for companies to grow and helps them become well-known brands. Over the past 10 years, AWS has watched startups use cloud technologies to grow and serve customers around the world, with vivid examples: AirBnB, Spotify, and Pinterest.
On the other hand, some of the largest and oldest companies in the world now also use AWS to accelerate the development of innovations within their organizations and achieve the same agility and flexibility as start-ups.
Companies such as General Electric, Shell, Philips, Pfizer and many others use AWS for critical missions. Customers from highly regulated industries such as the public sector, energy sector, financial services, oil and gas, and transportation sectors are moving large amounts of their infrastructure to AWS around the world. We now have over a million customers using the platform every month.
- In the Gartner quadrant, AWS is in fourth position for the fourth time. How do you do it?
Innovation sits in our DNA, and our structure, approach to product development, and delivery are fundamentally different from IT solutions from other suppliers. We have decentralized, autonomous development teams that work directly with our customers. They have the opportunity to develop and launch products based on what they learned during their interaction with consumers. We constantly introduce new products and provide customers with constant access to the latest innovations - there is no need for updates, deployments or relocations. When the addition or improvement is ready, we release it, and it is in constant access for any customer using this service.
This approach also allows us to quickly launch and implement new services. For example, since 2006, we have launched 70 large-scale new services, which we constantly improve on the basis of reviews, customer needs and their use of the product.
- AWS has over 1 million users. How do you plan to increase the number of customers?
We are experiencing a change of technology that is different from any other revolution in our time, and it is happening at an amazing speed — much faster than anyone could have foreseen. We are sure that the hour will come when only very few companies will have their own data center, which means one thing - most applications move to the cloud. It also becomes completely obvious that cloud technologies are no longer perceived as something supernatural.
Ultimately, this means that each industry will be able to develop innovations in new directions: from personalized medicine to a better understanding of our world and university education available to hundreds of thousands around the world, new business models of traditional industries and the advent of of the world ”- we are only at the beginning of what is possible with cloud technologies.
- One of the important aspects for you must be safety. Tell us a little about your approach to this issue in AWS.
Customer confidence is our priority, and we work day and night so that our customers around the world can work reliably on AWS, in accordance with the laws and without failures.
Since we launched services in 2006, AWS has received many international certificates and accreditations that demonstrate compliance with standards such as ISO 27001, ISO 27018, ISO 9001, PCI DSS Level 1, SOC 1, 2 & 3, HIPAA , FedRAMP / FISMA, DoD CSM level 1 & 2 and the recently added ISO 27017. We constantly listen to our customers and consider obtaining other certificates in the future.
It is also worth noting that customers retain ownership of their own content and choice, which AWS services can process, store and host their data. Clients determine which ZD will store their information, in full confidence that their data will not be moved anywhere without their consent.
While using infrastructure in the AWS regions, our customers also gain access to advanced security tools and services that provide numerous additional security levels and technical capabilities. We also give customers the ability to encrypt data (transmitted in data) and stored information (data at rest), where only the consumer has access to encryption keys. Encrypted content is completely inaccessible without the corresponding decryption keys.
- What can you tell us about security inside Amazon EC2?
Security passes through the red line through not only all layers of the AWS infrastructure, but also through all its services. AWS services are built to work efficiently and securely with all AWS networks and platforms. Each service provides extensive security controls to enable customers to protect sensitive information and applications.
Amazon EC2 is designed to make online scaling of computing resources easier, allowing consumers to capture and configure capacity without difficulty. Clients create and launch instances, which are a platform hardware-software mix.
Security inside Amazon C2 is built on multiple levels: the operating system (OS) on the host platform, the virtual instance OS or the guest OS, firewalls and signed API calls. Each of these components is built on the capabilities of the other components. The goal is to prevent the interception of information contained within Amazon EC2 by unauthorized systems and users, and to provide Amazon EC2 with instances that are as secure as possible without reducing the configuration flexibility required by customers.
Read more about security in AWS here .
- Which AWS products are the least and most popular?
The cloud has become a new norm, as now companies of different levels by default place new applications in the cloud and tend to move there as much as possible of existing applications and as quickly as possible. Therefore, we see how consumers use all AWS technologies, ranging from our fundamental services to services of a higher level. I can't tell you which is the most popular service we have, but here are some statistics: Amazon Aurora is the fastest growing service in AWS history, Amazon RDS has over 100,000 active users and AWS database services, including Amazon RDS, Amazon DynamoDB, Amazon Redshift and Amazon ElastiCache are a multibillion-dollar (in dollar terms) business, not including Amazon itself.
- What could be the reasons for the rejection of * aaS models? Are there any differences in this regard between Russian and European consumers?
I believe that there is no reason to abandon the cloud technology. The cloud gives customers increased flexibility, speed and versatility with greater security and lower prices.
- How does your company encourage its employees?
Amazon is an equal opportunity company that seeks to hire and develop the best employees. Whether our development centers or working with clients and partners, we provide a full range of benefits and benefits for employees and their families. This is how we achieve rapid growth and continue to grow and hire some of the most talented technicians around the world. For your readers who are interested in working with Amazon or AWS, I would recommend visiting www.amazon.jobs
- How often do you arrange a planning meeting in your company?
AWS is a customer-oriented company. Therefore, we try to spend as much time as possible with our customers. From time to time we have “flyers”, but still we prefer them to spend time with our customers.
- Did you like in Kazan and, in particular, in the IT park?
Our team really enjoyed it. The customers we met had asked interesting questions and are currently creating innovative AWS applications. Looking forward to the next meeting!
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/301464/
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