AWS

Amazon Web Services describes itself as the world's most comprehensive cloud, spanning compute, storage, databases, analytics, artificial intelligence, networking, security, developer tools, media services and industry solutions, with an extensive partner network and marketplace alongside the services themselves. Featured products include EC2 for compute, S3 for object storage, Aurora for serverless relational databases and Bedrock for generative AI applications.

Breadth is the defining property and it cuts both ways. Practically any capability an organisation needs exists here, which removes the question of whether something is possible, and the number of services makes deciding which to use a genuine skill rather than a lookup.

Pricing is per service and metered rather than expressed as a plan, so the platform has no headline rate. That is honest to how it works and it also means cost is an engineering responsibility: architecture decisions determine the bill more than any purchasing negotiation does.

The partner and marketplace ecosystem is a substantial part of what is being bought. Third-party software provisioned through the marketplace bills through the same account, which for organisations with established procurement is often the reason a platform decision is made at all.