What are web services?

Web services encompass a wide array of products and services that companies can utilize to build, deploy, and scale their applications. The primary advantage of using these web services is that they allow companies to concentrate on their core business logic, without the need to concern themselves with the underlying infrastructure. This enables them to launch applications more quickly and scale more effortlessly, as the burdensome task of managing servers and databases is taken care of by the cloud provider.

Which are the most common web services?

There are hundreds of web services available today, but the most common ones can be categorized into the following:

Compute services

These services provide the infrastructure to run applications. Examples include AWS EC2, Google Compute Engine, Alibaba Elastic Compute Service, and Microsoft Azure Virtual Machines.

Storage services

These services offer managed storage systems. Examples include AWS S3, Google Cloud Storage, Alibaba Object Storage Service, and Microsoft Azure Blob Storage.

Database services

These services provide managed database systems. Examples include AWS RDS, Google Cloud SQL, Alibaba Cloud ApsaraDB for RDS, and Microsoft Azure SQL Database.

Networking and Content Delivery services

These services provide tools for managing network traffic and content delivery. Examples include AWS CloudFront, Google Cloud CDN, Alibaba Cloud Content Delivery Network, and Microsoft Azure Content Delivery Network.

AI and Machine Learning services

These services offer tools and infrastructure to develop, train, and deploy machine learning models. Examples include AWS SageMaker, Google Cloud AI Platform, Alibaba Machine Learning Platform for AI, and Microsoft Azure Machine Learning.

Analytics services

These services provide tools for collecting, processing, and analyzing large datasets. Examples include AWS Athena, Google BigQuery, Alibaba DataWorks, and Microsoft Azure Synapse Analytics.