AWS

in English: Amazon Web Services

basicwidespread

AWS is Amazon's cloud service: you can rent computers, storage, and AI tools from it via the internet, and pay only for what you use.

In plain terms

AWS is like an electricity provider, but instead of power, it offers computing capacity. Just as you do not need to build your own power plant, you do not need to set up and maintain your own server room: you connect to the network and pay for your consumption.

Companies, banks, government agencies, and startups run their websites, applications, and databases on these. Many services you use daily run partially or entirely on AWS machines, though you see none of this.

In the AI era, this is important because training and running large language models requires many expensive, specialized chips. Most companies do not buy these but rent them. On AWS, ready-made AI models and tools for building agents are also available.

It differs from its competitors, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud, mainly in size and the breadth of its offerings. Of the three major cloud providers, this one started earliest and is also the largest in the market.

How it works

Amazon operates massive data centers in many parts of the world, containing thousands of servers, storage units, and AI chips.
Software divides these machines into smaller, isolated units, so the same hardware can be used safely by many clients at once.
A customer places an order with a few clicks on a website or from a program: for example, ten servers, a database, or access to a language model. These start within minutes.
The system measures consumption (machine time, stored data, data traffic, and for AI, the volume of processed text) and bills accordingly.
If traffic increases, the customer activates more capacity; if it decreases, they deactivate it, so they do not pay for unused machines.

An everyday example

You watch a series on a streaming service, order something from an online store, and ask an AI chatbot a question. Quite possibly, AWS machines are doing the work behind all three. If a fault occurs in one of AWS's large regions, meaning a cluster of data centers, several seemingly unrelated apps on your phone can go down at once. This happened, for example, in October 2025, when a disruption in a US AWS region crippled many popular services worldwide.

Who is affected

entrepreneur, executiveYou can decide whether to buy your own server or rent one, and in the long term this decision determines your costs and how dependent you are on a provider.

developerKnowledge of AWS is one of the most sought-after skills, and the tools for building AI agents are increasingly available on such cloud platforms. → Code

lawyer, citizenYour data are often on servers of an American company, so it matters in which country they are stored and what law applies to them. → Law

everyoneDuring a major AWS outage, everything from your banking app to games can become unavailable at once.

A common misconception

MythIn the cloud, my data is somewhere 'in the air,' and its security is entirely handled by Amazon.

In realityData resides on physical machines in data centers in specific countries. Amazon protects the infrastructure, but the customer is responsible for settings, passwords, and access.

Limits and risks

Usage-based billing can easily spiral out of control: a machine accidentally left running or a heavily working AI agent can generate an unexpectedly large bill.
The more AWS-specific services a company uses, the harder and more expensive it becomes to migrate to another provider later.
If a major AWS region goes down, services built on it fail en masse, so critical systems require backup solutions.
Complying with European data protection rules requires extra attention, because the provider is an American company, even if it stores the data in a European data center.

Similar, but not the same

Amazon (online store) – The Amazon online store sells products to customers, while AWS is a separate business unit of the same company that rents out IT capacity.
Cloud computing – The cloud itself is the method, meaning renting computing over the internet, while AWS is a specific company offering this.
Data center – The data center is the physical building with the machines, while AWS is the collection of services built on top of it, available worldwide.

Related concepts

Broader

Cloud computing, Cloud service provider, AI infrastructure

Narrower

Amazon Bedrock, Amazon EC2, Amazon S3, Amazon SageMaker

On the edge

Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, Data center, GPU, vendor lock-in

A brief history

Amazon began renting out its own IT expertise developed for its online store to others. AWS launched in its current form in 2006, first with storage services (S3), then with rentable servers (EC2). Amazon's AI service, Bedrock, was made generally available in 2023.

Where things stand

At the end of 2026, AWS is the world's largest cloud provider. Behind it comes Microsoft Azure, followed by Google Cloud with a much smaller share. A large part of AWS investment goes into AI data centers, its own chips (Trainium, Inferentia), and tools for running agents.

Status: 2026 November

In the news

Appears in 35 Agent Age stories; the curve shows weekly occurrence in the news magazine.

AWS launches Kiro bots to coordinate AI coding agentsNov 5, 2026 · Code
AWS launches new package to help bring physical AI into manufacturingNov 5, 2026 · Ipar
AWS Transform can be used in GitHub Copilot via MCP for .NET projectsOct 27, 2026 · Code
Omnicom's Credera signs five-year AWS deal for AI marketingOct 20, 2026 · Marketing
Amazon plans to invest more than €16 billion in Germany in 2027Oct 20, 2026 · Ipar
AWS energy lead says utilities can use AI to clear grid backlogs; Florida utilities get AI platformOct 15, 2026 · Ipar
Amazon launches AWS Physical AI Toolchain for roboticsOct 12, 2026 · Ipar
AWS GovCloud adds support for Claude Code and Claude 5.5 for regulated workloadsOct 5, 2026 · Code

Also known as

AWS · Amazon Web Services · Amazon AWS · Amazon cloud · Amazon's cloud service · Amazon Cloud · AWS cloud · AWS Cloud

Sources

This entry was machine-edited and has undergone machine expert review; the “In the news” section updates automatically from Agent Age stories.