What's your level of experience with ops/networking etc.? Because it all boils down to that. If you need a simpler service, maybe you could use digital ocean etc...
Technically you're right of course but I think you miss the broader point. AWS is ludicrously complicated and overkill for most startups, like a corner store implementing SAP. The problem is it's the gold standard for "cloud" and choosing anything else (apart from GCS, perhaps) attracts the need for justifications and, ultimately, unwelcome accountability. "Nobody ever got fired for [choosing AWS]".
I'd personally love it if AWS implemented a digital ocean-like "basic" interface which, realistically, covers 90% of startups' needs. Simple is good. If needed, they can switch over to "Fortune 500 mode" later.
"Hey Joe, the app you built for Goldberg Partners uses AWS right?"
"Yeah."
"What does it do on AWS again? Store some files?"
"Yeah, and a load balancer in front of a few containers that handle thumbnail generation for those images. Pretty standard stuff."
"I see. What was their pricing like?"
"Last time I checked, the billing page said something like $0.023 per GB for the first 50 TB or something like that, and $0.0116 per hour for the containers. I don't remember the load balancer pricing, but it should be pretty cheap, we don't have that much stuff on there."
"Interesting, okay. Can you explain why they sent us a bill for $10,372.77?"
> I'd personally love it if AWS implemented a digital ocean-like "basic" interface which, realistically, covers 90% of startups' needs. Simple is good.
Have you looked at Amazon Lightsail? It might be closer to what you're after.
I think you’re right on. I worked as a lead for a startup that ended up with all these credits in SoftLayer years ago, and we steered into a Vyatta network setup that was fairly complicated and I had to really learn a bunch of networking in real-time. But understanding a lot of underpinnings made it super easy to map to aws primatives, and appreciated because what they do with vpcs/networking kills so much complexity.
Usually when I’m getting into a new area of aws I try to find what they’ve built the technology with. Then I try to go get a good base in that technology, then figure out what AWS has done and understand why/reasoning. This also helps alleviate common concerns about only learning some aws stack. Learn both things, one might one day become less relevant, the other will help you build solid base understandings that last longer.
I'd personally love it if AWS implemented a digital ocean-like "basic" interface which, realistically, covers 90% of startups' needs. Simple is good. If needed, they can switch over to "Fortune 500 mode" later.