Application of Amazon Web Services in software development

Abstract: During these last recent years cloud computing and cloud services have started to gain traction, which has been most notable among companies. Amazon have proven to be one of the powerhouses on providing scalable and flexible cloud computing services. However, cloud computing is still a relatively new area. From an outsider’s point of view, the overwhelming information and available services might prove to be difficult to familiarize with. The aim of this thesis is to explore how Amazon Web Services can be applied during software development and observing how difficult it might be to use these services. Three test applications that utilized different Amazon Web Services were implemented to get an insight into how Amazon Web Services can be applied from a cloud computing beginner’s point of view. These applications were developed in an iterative manner, where a case study was performed on each application. At the start of each new iteration a literature study was conducted, where sources were reviewed to see if it provided essential information. In total, nine different Amazon Web Services were used to implement and test the three respective test applications. Results of the case study were interpreted and evaluated with regards to the learnability and appliance of Amazon Web Services. Issues that were identified during the development process showed that Amazon Web Services were not userfriendly for users that have little to no experience with cloud computing services. Further research on other Amazon Web Services, such as Elastic Cloud Computing, as well as other cloud computing platforms like Google or IBM, may provide a deeper and more accurate insight on the appliances of cloud computing.