This service enables you to use template files to define full and complex AWS deployments. The ability to script your use of any AWS resources makes it easier to automate, standardizing and speeding up the application launch process.
CloudTrail
CloudTrail collects records of all your account's API events. This history is useful for account auditing and troubleshooting purposes.
Config
The Config service is designed to help you with change management and compliance for your AWS account. You first define a desired configuration state, and Config evaluates any future states against that ideal. When a configuration change pushes too far from the ideal baseline, you'll be notified.
Security and identity
Identity and Access Management (IAM)
You use IAM to administrate user and programmatic access and authentication to your AWS account. Through the use of users, groups, roles, and policies, you can control exactly who and what can access and/or work with any of your AWS resources.
Key Management Service (KMS)
KMS is a managed service that allows you to administrate the creation and use of encryption keys to secure data used by and for any of your AWS resources.
Directory Service
For AWS environments that need to manage identities and relationships, Directory Service can integrate AWS resources with identity providers like Amazon Cognito and Microsoft AD domains.
Application integration
Simple Notification Service (SNS)
SNS is a notification tool that can automate the publishing of alert topics to other services (to an SQS Queue or to trigger a Lambda function, for instance), to mobile devices, or to recipients using email or SMS.
Simple Workflow (SWF)
SWF lets you coordinate a series of tasks that must be performed using a range of AWS services or even nondigital (meaning, human) events.
Simple Queue Service (SQS)
SQS allows for event‐driven messaging within distributed systems that can decouple while coordinating the discrete steps of a larger process. The data contained in your SQS messages will be reliably delivered, adding to the fault‐tolerant qualities of an application.
API Gateway
This service enables you to create and manage secure and reliable APIs for your AWS‐based applications.
AWS Platform Architecture
AWS maintains data centers for its physical servers around the world. Because the centers are so widely distributed, you can reduce your own services' network transfer latency by hosting your workloads geographically close to your users. It can also help you manage compliance with regulations requiring you to keep data within a particular legal jurisdiction.
Data centers exist within AWS regions, of which there are currently 21—not including private U.S. government AWS GovCloud regions—although this number is constantly growing. It's important to always be conscious of the region you have selected when you launch new AWS resources; pricing and service availability can vary from one to the next. Table 1.3 shows a list of all 21 (nongovernment) regions along with each region's name and core endpoint addresses. Note that accessing and authenticating to the two Chinese regions requires unique protocols.
TABLE 1.3 A list of publicly accessible AWS regions
