AWS Services Demystified—Download Your Free AWS Services Cheat Sheet
A concise, one-page guide breaking down 30+ core AWS services plus a 75+ AWS services cheat sheet in plain English—perfect for architects, developers, and DevOps pros on the go.
Amazon Web Services has grown from a handful of offerings into hundreds of cloud services covering compute, storage, databases, networking, machine learning, security and more. Understanding the core AWS building blocks and how they relate can save you time, money, and a lot of head-scratching. Let’s look at some of those core services and also attached is a cheat sheet of current services in 2025.
Compute: Powering Your Workloads
EC2 (Elastic Compute Cloud): Virtual servers in minutes; choose from a dizzying array of instance types for general-purpose, compute-optimized, GPU or memory-optimized needs.
Lambda: Serverless functions that run code in response to events—no servers to provision or manage. Charges by the millisecond of execution.
ECS & EKS: Container orchestration with AWS’s own Elastic Container Service or fully managed Kubernetes via Elastic Kubernetes Service.
Storage: Durable, Scalable, Flexible
S3 (Simple Storage Service): Object storage for anything from backups to big data lakes. Virtually infinite scalability with tiered pricing.
EBS (Elastic Block Store): Block-level storage volumes for EC2 instances—ideal for file systems, databases, and applications needing low-latency access.
EFS (Elastic File System): Managed NFS volumes that can be mounted by multiple EC2 instances across availability zones.
Databases: Pick Your Flavor
RDS (Relational Database Service): Managed MySQL, PostgreSQL, MariaDB, Oracle, and SQL Server instances. Automated backups, scaling, and patched engines.
DynamoDB: Ultra-fast NoSQL key-value and document database, with on-demand scaling and single-digit millisecond response times.
Aurora: MySQL- and PostgreSQL-compatible database engineered by AWS for high performance and availability, at a fraction of traditional costs.
Networking & Delivery: Connecting the Dots
VPC (Virtual Private Cloud): Your isolated network slice in AWS—define subnets, route tables, and security groups to control traffic flow.
CloudFront: Global content delivery network for faster delivery of websites, APIs, and media with built-in DDoS protection.
API Gateway: Fully managed gateway to create, publish, and secure REST and WebSocket APIs at any scale.
Monitoring, Logging & Governance
CloudWatch: Collect metrics, logs, and events from nearly every AWS service—and set alarms or dashboards to stay on top of performance.
CloudTrail: Audit and record every API call within your account for compliance, troubleshooting, or security analysis.
Config & Control Tower: Track resource configurations over time and enforce policies across multiple accounts.
Security & Identity
IAM (Identity and Access Management): Central control over users, roles, and permissions—fine-grained access to every AWS service and resource.
Cognito: Manage user pools and federated identities for web and mobile apps, with built-in social and enterprise login options.
KMS (Key Management Service): Create and control encryption keys for data-at-rest and in-transit across your AWS environment.
Emerging & Specialized Services
SageMaker: Fully managed machine learning platform for data labeling, training, tuning, and hosting models at scale.
Fargate: Serverless compute engine for containers—no EC2 instances to manage, billed per vCPU and memory usage.
Outposts, Wavelength & Local Zones: Extend AWS infrastructure to on-premises data centers, telecom networks, or specific metro areas.
How to Use the Free AWS Services Cheat Sheet
I’ve distilled this whirlwind tour into a one-page cheat sheet that lists over 75 of the most widely used AWS services with a 1-sentence description for each. Print it, pin it to your wall, or keep it handy on your desk when planning new projects.
👇 Download the free AWS Services Cheat Sheet here:
