March 27, 2023 / Nirav Shah
Hosting Magento on Amazon Web Services (AWS) can provide your business with significant benefits. First and foremost, hosting your online store on AWS will ensure you have access to some of the most reliable servers and cloud storage solutions available. With this scalability, you can quickly expand your customer base and reduce unnecessary costs during times of lower demand.
Amazon offers an array of features such as optimised security protocols, automated backups and patch management services that significantly minimise the need for time-consuming maintenance tasks.
Furthermore, hosting Magento on AWS allows businesses to benefit from superior performance compared to traditional web hosting solutions due to improved load-balancing capabilities and higher-quality server infrastructure.
While it may be tempting to host Magento on AWS due to its several advantages, there are some drawbacks associated with its setup, which we will explore in the blog ahead.
Pros and Cons of AWS Hosting For Magento Website
Key Advantages & Disadvantages Of Hosting Magento On AWS
Advantages of Hosting Magento on Amazon Web Services (AWS)
Cost Effectiveness
Robust Performance
Security and Reliability
Scalability and Flexibility
Disadvantages of Hosting Magento on Amazon Web Services (AWS)
Complex Setup Process
Limitations on Customization Options
Significant Considerations when Deciding to Host Magento on AWS
Essential Tips for Getting Started with Hosting Magento on AWS
Key Takeaways
AWS offers many benefits to help get your Magento store up and running quickly and safely. Hosting your Magento store on AWS is a wise choice that can benefit businesses of any size.
One of the main advantages of hosting Magento on AWS is its cost-effectiveness as it eliminates high upfront costs associated with purchasing hardware or software licences and reduces server maintenance costs through automated updates and patch management.
You can easily monitor usage levels so that you know what you are paying for each month, plus take advantage of flexible scaling options when needed.
With improved performance due to fast loading times, cloud servers optimally configured for peak performance will help maximise conversions from customers who visit your store.
Load balancing allows websites hosted on AWS architecture to distribute the load more evenly across various regions and instances rather than just relying on a single server which increases reliability in case one fails or is under a heavy load.
The above scenario helps increase uptime considerably, reducing page loading times even during peak periods when there may be high traffic volumes simultaneously accessing resources from different locations around the world. Hence, avoiding timeout errors seen with shared hosting providers cannot handle these volumes concurrently.
Amazon Web Services (AWS) ensures robust protection for your website and data with its security-compliant infrastructure, reliable backups, and the ability to scale at any level. Additionally, AWS helps you stay compliant with industry regulations.
With world-class infrastructure, AWS comes with several layers of built-in security ranging from physical access control to audit logging. Organisations can easily control and monitor access via identity management tools that enable granular permissions and authentication.
When hosting Magento on AWS, your system can grow with you as you scale up or down when necessary. Flexibility also means that your business can customise each product page’s attributes and features to meet individual customer requirements and adjust website elements as needed in response to changing consumer preferences.
This dynamic nature of managing data allows changes to be made almost at will and within minutes instead of the days or weeks it would take if done manually or via other hosting services.
While hosting Magento on AWS provides many advantages, there are some drawbacks to consider too. Below are some disadvantages of hosting Magento on AWS:
Due to the complexity of setting up a server on AWS and configuring it properly for Magento, there are better solutions than AWS which works better for non-technical users. Configuring security settings and databases can be difficult and, if done incorrectly, can pose risks to the integrity of your online store.
Additionally, due to the lack of support available from AWS when troubleshooting these issues and challenges, the time needed for setup may be prohibitive for some people.
When using AWS as a host service provider, you only have control over certain aspects, such as configuration files and back-end processes like databases or storage services. Still, you need full access to frontend components like templates or code changes via FTP or SSH; hence there will be fewer customisation options compared to traditional hosting solutions.
Overall, while using Amazon Web Services has its advantages in terms of scalability and flexibility, it also carries specific challenges that must be considered before committing resources to this solution. It is vital to research further into both approaches to make an informed decision according to your business and operational requirements.
Finalising whether to host your Magento eCommerce store on AWS requires considering various factors. Here are some essential considerations that can help you make an informed decision when determining to Host Magento on AWS.
Automation: Choosing to host your Magento website with Amazon Web Services can help save costs due to automated resource allocation. This scenario helps in reducing operational expenses related to the manual configuration required when setting up traditional hosting platforms.
Flexible Environment Options: You will benefit from having a wide array of environment options available within the AWS infrastructure. It includes setting up staging environments using Amazon EC2 instances and test databases. This scenario gives you greater flexibility when designing and deploying new applications without any downtime affecting your end customers.
Monitoring Tools: With AWS CloudWatch monitoring tools in place, businesses gain insights into their IT infrastructure, allowing them to optimise performance. While it also allows staying one step ahead of potential issues and challenges before they arise, helping increase availability and reliability for customers.
Getting started with hosting Magento on AWS can be an interesting task. Here are some tips you should consider to get the most out of your experience:
Ensure that you have the necessary domain name and Amazon Web Services account and that the bandwidth for your market needs is available.
Create an EC2 instance with a Linux-based operating system (Amazon recommends Ubuntu) and ensure it is configured correctly to ensure optimal performance.
Install the Apache web server, which will serve as the interface between users and Magento instances.
It is crucial to optimise memory usage by configuring parameters according to traffic demand or usage projections.
Install PHP so that applications can run appropriately on top of Linux servers, and configure PHP-FPM to manage active website processes while ensuring smooth scalability if traffic increases significantly at once.
Install MySQL special database software needed for Magento deployment along with Memcached/Redis product and NoSQL databases specially tailored for high-speed lookups. This scenario helps serve large data sets quickly within applications running across AWS services.
Finally, obtain a copy of pre-installed Magento from specialised cloud providers or directly from the official website of Magento, including sample data packages. This scenario helps developers become familiarised quickly with platform tools and features before trying different configurations using their own content assets and settings files.
So, there are both pros and cons of AWS hosting. However, hosting a Magento website on AWS is a great way to ensure high scalability, availability, and performance. It also provides advanced debugging and monitoring capabilities that save time, effort, and money.
Nevertheless, some measures must be well thought-out before deciding to use AWS for hosting Magento, including locked-in vendor support, complex setup processes, levels of automation needed, and confines on customisation choices.
Once these measures have been considered and when setting AWS for Magento hosting is done correctly, customers can reap several benefits from running their website on this powerful cloud platform.
Also Check: Step-By-Step Guide to Setting Up Magento 2 on Amazon AWS
As a Director of Eternal Web Private Ltd an AWS consulting partner company, Nirav is responsible for its operations. AWS, cloud-computing and digital transformation are some of his favorite topics to talk about. His key focus is to help enterprises adopt technology, to solve their business problem with the right cloud solutions.
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