A Guide: Getting started with AWS Free tier account

In this blog post, I will delve into the seamless process of creating an AWS free tier account. I'll outline the requirements, included services, and explore the advantages of utilizing this cloud platform. This seamless integration of development and deployment processes on AWS empowers developers to focus more on innovation and less on infrastructure management, ultimately accelerating time to driving business success.

Requirements

• Internationally Reconized Debit/Credit Card

• A minimum of 1 USD (or equivalent) in the Card

You dont have an Internationally Reconized Debit/Credit Card (In Zimbabwe)?
You can utilize your EcoCash VCN(Virtual Card).
It allows you to pay for services online by deducting money from your EcoCash USD wallet. You wont incur any monthly charges, you are only charged when you transact.

HOW TO GENERATE AN ECOCASH VIRTUAL CARD FOR ONLINE PAYMENTS

1. Dial *151# and enter PIN

2. Select "Wallet Services"

3. Select "EcoCash Debit Card"

4. Select "EcoCash MasterCard Virtual"

5. Get Virtual Card Number(VCN)

6. Then, you will receive a message with the code to use for your transaction

There are many other options you can utilize as your payment option

Steps:

1. Visit https://aws.amazon.com/free/aws

2. You will be welcomed by the following page

   

3. Fill all the required forms

4. Provide and verify the payment Method

5. You are good to go

Free tier services for Developers

Usually used AWS Free tier services used by developers

• Amazon EC2

• Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3)

• Amazon Relational Database Services (RDS)

• AWS Lambda

• Amazon DynamoDB

Amazon EC2

Amazon EC2 is eligiable for a 12 month free tier period. You are given 750 hours of Amazon EC2 instance usage per each month. Which means the total free tier instance usage per 12 months is 750*12. - Only t2.micro / t3.micro EC2 instance types are eligiable for free tier. Amazon EC2 is a virtual (cloud based) server that provides developers with a flexible and scalable infrastructure for building, testing, and deploying software applications in the cloud.

Amazon S3

Amazon S3 (Simple Storage Service) is a scalable cloud storage service provided by Amazon Web Services (AWS). It allows developers to store and retrieve any amount of data at any time from anywhere on the web. AWS free tier for S3 includes 5 GB of Amazon S3 Standard storage, 20,000 Get Requests, 2,000 Put Requests, and 100 GB of data transfer each month for one year.

Developers utilize S3 primarily for three key purposes:

Object Storage: It serves as a robust storage solution for a diverse range of data types including files, images, datasets, documents, videos, and more.
Static Website Hosting: S3 enables developers to effortlessly host static websites, providing a cost-effective and scalable solution for serving web content.
Data Backup and Archiving: Developers leverage S3 for data backup and archiving needs, capitalizing on its durability, reliability, and flexible storage options.

Amazon RDS

AWS free tier for RDS includes 750 hours of Amazon RDS Single-AZ instances usage for running MySQL, PostgreSQL, MariaDB, or db.t2.micro instance usage running SQL Server (running SQL Server Express Edition); 20 GB of general purpose SSD database storage and 20 GB of storage for database backup and database snapshots.

Amazon RDS (Relational Database Service) is a managed relational database service offered by Amazon Web Services (AWS). It's designed to simplify the process of setting up, operating, and scaling a relational database in the cloud.

Amazon RDS supports several popular relational database engines, including MySQL, PostgreSQL, MariaDB, Oracle, and Microsoft SQL Server.