1. Global infrastructure #
Regions, zones and the edge.
Regions and availability zones #
AWS is organized into regions (Paris eu-west-3, Ireland eu-west-1, Frankfurt eu-central-1…), completely independent of each other. Each region contains at least three availability zones (AZs): separate data centers, powered and cooled independently, linked by a private, very low-latency network.
| Criterion | What guides the choice of region |
|---|---|
| Compliance | Where must the data reside? (GDPR, health data) |
| Latency | Proximity to users |
| Services | Not all services are available everywhere |
| Price | Prices vary from one region to another |
2. Accounts and tools #
Console, CLI, SDK and organization.
Accounts #
The AWS account is the unit of billing and isolation. Several are created (production, staging, security, logs) and grouped in AWS Organizations, which centralizes billing and applies control policies (SCPs).
Common mistake: Never use the root user day to day: protect it with MFA, delete its access keys and reserve it for the rare tasks that require it.
The command line #
aws configure sso # connexion via IAM Identity Center (recommandé)
aws sts get-caller-identity # qui suis-je ? compte, rôle
aws ec2 describe-regions --output table
aws configure set region eu-west-3 # région par défaut
aws s3 ls # premier appel de service3. Responsibility and pricing #
Who secures what, and how much it costs.
Shared responsibility #
Key takeaway: Whatever the offering, you remain responsible for your data, your identities and their access rights.
Pricing principles #
- Pay as you go: per second for Linux EC2, per request for Lambda, per GB-month for S3.
- No data ingress fees; egress to the Internet is billed.
- Commitment discounts: Savings Plans and reserved instances; spare capacity at a reduced price: Spot instances.
- A free tier to discover services, with monthly limits.
Good practice: Create a budget with an email alert as soon as the account is opened (AWS Budgets): it is the best protection against unpleasant surprises.
