Amazon Web Services (AWS)

Amazon Inc. is a multinational technology company in the USA. Amazon offers many
products and services. Such as retail goods, amazon prime, consumer electronics, digital
content, amazon studios, amazon game studios, amazon video, Luna, amazon web service
and amazon publishing. Among those products and services, amazon is famous for e-
commerce, digital streaming, cloud computing and artificial intelligence (Amazon Web
Services, 2020). Amazon Web Services (AWS) is one of the cloud services provided by
Amazon. AWS is the most complete and widely used cloud solution in the world, it provides
more than 200 fully functional services from its data centre across the world (Amazon Web
Services, 2020). AWS was launched in July 2002. AWS is more agile and cost effective so
individual, small and big companies use this cloud to build applications, store data, access
resources by using the internet without any maintenance or other cost. AWS is highly
dependable, affordable, scalable cloud services that supports many enterprises in more than
180 different nations (Mathew & Varia, 2014, P. 3). 

SWOT Analysis.
SWOT Analysis is the technique which is used to identify and evaluate strength, weakness,
opportunity and threats of an organisation. From SWOT analysis technique an organisation
can make effective business strategy, decision and also know and overcome the threat and
weakness of an organisation (Bigelow et al., 2022).

Strength
Strength is the internal factor that positively affects the companies or individuals. Strength is
the advantage key point which makes them better than their competitors in the market. The
strength of AWS web is given below:
 Cost leadership.
 Offers dozens of features.
 First introduction into the market in 2006.
 A robust market.
 It offers more than 175 PaaS and IaaS services.
Description
AWS provides high availability. AWS IT infrastructure are located or available in more than
75 zones which provide high availability. It has more than 22 storage instances, 56 memory
instances (Illsley, 2020). AWS offers dozens of features to the customers at an affordable
price. AWS is cost effective, users or clients can use AWS services and pay what they have
used. AWS was firstly introduced into the market in 2006 AD. AWS has a robust market
because AWS has high availability and it is cost effective. AWS offers more than 175 PaaS
and IaaS services to the clients. It offers fully featured services to clients for storage,
networking, IOT and AI based on their customer requirement.

Weakness
Weakness is also another internal factor that negatively affects the companies or individuals.
Weakness is the factor that affects negatively and needs to be improved. The weakness of
AWS is given below:
  Complexity
AWS is expanding their services and IT infrastructure. There will be complexity to
manage, control and maintain IT infrastructure and services. There will be challenges
to introduce and explain about services to the customer, if they provide many services
(Illsley, 2020). There will be complexity to choose a service package for the customer
and complexity to maintenance for the service provider.

 Outage and customer dissatisfaction.

Outage is the main challenge for cloud computing. AWS is the big shark in cloud
computing but due to distributed IT resources sometimes customers face downtime or
outages. Customers may be dissatisfied due to outages and unexpected pricing. AWS
provides many services but some services have high prices and it also charges extra
for technical maintenance or support. Customers will be dissatisfied due to
unexpected and not reasonable prices.
Opportunities
Opportunities are the external factors that positively affect the companies and individuals.
The opportunities of AWS are given below:

 Business models focused on social media and e-commerce.

Nowadays business models focus on social media and e-commerce. This type of
business model can help AWS to collaborate with regional, logistics service providers
and suppliers in the global market. AWS can provide services at the best price to
customers for their satisfaction. Most of the company focus on e-commerce and social
media, with the help of e-commerce and social media AWS can promote or reach to
maximum customers.

 Growing market size and changing consumer preference.

Cloud computing is becoming more popular because it is cost effective and high
availability. The companies prefer to use cloud service rather than installing on
premises IT infrastructure. The market of cloud computing is growing day by day
(Chu, 2013). And consumer preferences are changing to satisfy them. AWS needs to
provide different cloud services based on consumer taste with reasonable prices. AWS
needs to maintain loyal customers and take care of the new consumer. 

Threats
Threats are the external factor that negatively affects the companies and individuals. The
threats of AWS are given below:

 Price war on services.

There is a price war on services. Some big tech companies provide similar service to
the consumer at different prices. The big tech which are a threat for AWS are
Microsoft, Google, IBM and other small companies. Maximum consumers select the
cloud service based on price. So price war on service is the threat for AWS.
  Threat of new entrants.

New entrants become the main threat when they provide similar services with less
price than AWS (7 Cloud Security Issues and AWS Security Best Practices Fixes,
2021). New entrants will increase the number of service providers in the market. If the
number of service providers increases in the market, then the market size will
decrease for AWS or other service providers automatically.

 Keep growing AWS offering to stay ahead in the market.

AWS needs to keep growing its offers to stay ahead in the market. AWS needs to
offer different services continually to stay ahead on market. If you stop expanding the
service, then competitors will overtake you or your company. 

Recommendation
Porter’s five force analysis is done to check business competition, to know position strength.
The competitive advantage strategies are cost leadership, focus and differentiation. To
overcome AWS weakness i would like to recommend some solution which are given below:

 AWS needs to introduce different services.

AWS needs to introduce different services or with new features than other service
providers to the customer. New features or newly introduced services should not be
complex to understand by consumers. The different service or new feature service
needs to be explained or advertised properly, so consumers can easily understand that
service. That service provided by AWS needs to be different from other cloud service
providers.

 Customer satisfaction.

AWS needs to satisfy their customers with service and price also. Outage is the
biggest issue faced by cloud computing or cloud service providers. AWS web needs
to decrease downtime to satisfy their customers. And the cost or price needs to be
 affordable and reasonable for AWS. The price should not be higher than other
competitors which provide similar services. If AWS web wants competitive
advantage, then they need to become a cost leader. AWS can become a cost leader by
providing services at a lower price than others.

Security Threats
The unauthorised person access or theft of sensitive data from the cloud is security threats.
Security threats can be software attack, human error, identity theft, malware. The security
threats for AWS are given below:

 Authentication, identity and access management.

In AWS, there is no use of multi-factor authentication. Due to weak password and

misconfigured access point. AWS may face many security threats. AWS give too
much control to identity and access management, due to too much control
unauthorised or wrong users also access unauthorised or sensitive data (7 Cloud
Security Issues and AWS Security Best Practices Fixes, 2021). Giving too much
control or indirect access is the main reason for security threats.

 Network security.

NACL (Network Access Control List) is the layer of AWS which controls or monitors
the in and out flow of traffic in the network. If you wrongly configure the NACL, then
it permits too much inbound traffic. If the configure of NACL is done incorrectly then
anyone can access that service which causes a serious security problem in AWS.

The solution to overcome the security threats of AWS are given below:
 AWS needs to use multi-factor authentications. Encryption mechanisms need to be
used because in cloud computing data is transferred or moved within the internet.
Auditing should be done in enterprise because from auditing we can know who are
using what, when used, how they used it. AWS needs to give or ensure that authorized
users have appropriate permission.
  NACL or other networks should or need to be configured correctly. Networks need to
monitor or control traffic and access to AWS. installing a firewall in the system and
running anti-virus also to monitor the vulnerable activities.  

IT - Supply chain enabler.

Enablers are the elements that encourage the development of a sustainable supply chain. IT
can help the organization to succeed in the new market by using it as a supply chain enabler.
AWS uses EDI (Electronic Data Interchange), where all the agreement and other terms and
conditions are done through online or online processes. EDI saves time and money like
travelling costs, paper costs and other costs. In EDI all the documents are exchanged or
transferred from one computer to another computer in electronic format. AWS is an e-
business. AWS sells or provides services online. All the AWS services are done with online
processes. Customers can use AWS services according to their requirement with the help of
network or internet. Customers also pay what they have used with the help of digital payment
methods. All the business of AWS goes through online processes. So without IT I don't think
AWS can run properly in new market and IT help AWS on its supply chain.