The 80/20 of AWS (the services that actually matter)

AWS has over 200 services, but most companies rely on just 10-15 core services for the vast majority of their workloads. The article walks through essential services like IAM, EC2, and others in plain language, explaining what each does and when to use it. It also notes AWS's free tier change in July 2025, where new accounts now receive $200 in credits for 6 months instead of the traditional 12-month free tier.