AWS is the big cloud. I use three corners of it: EC2 for a small virtual server, S3 for object storage, and SES for sending mail. Everything else in the catalogue I have either not needed or have found a simpler version of elsewhere.

How I use it

The EC2 box exists for one reason: some APIs only talk to a whitelisted IP address, and a tiny instance with an elastic IP is the cheapest fixed address money can buy. It runs a few Python scripts on a schedule and a small Flask app, and I reach it over a private network rather than an open port. S3 holds media and backups. A folder on a shared drive mirrors to a bucket every ten minutes, and from there the files have a public URL that any script or ad platform can read. SES sends the mail my own tools generate, form submissions, alerts, a daily digest, at a price that rounds to zero.

What surprised me is how stable all three are. The instance has rebooted twice in two years, both times on my request. What annoys me is everything around them. The console is a maze, the IAM model for permissions takes a week to understand and a day to get wrong, and the monthly bill has forty line items of which the surprising one is always data transfer out. SES also starts every account in a sandbox that can only mail verified addresses, and leaving it means a support ticket and a wait.

I do nearly all of it from the CLI and the Python SDK, and I recommend you do too.

Who it is for

Developers who need a fixed IP, a bucket or a mail sender and are comfortable reading documentation. The free credits make the first six months painless. If you just want a server, a European VPS provider is simpler and cheaper. Skip it if the word IAM makes you tired; the simpler providers exist for a reason.

Related tools