In this chapter, we will be introducing you to our sample enterprise application that we will be using to demonstrate our step-by-step migration to the AWS cloud. Our sample application is not a simplified example, but a fully architected working example of an enterprise application that could be running within your organization today. As such, we have set ourselves some rather strict rules of engagement to make sure that we don't cheat!
But before we describe our sample enterprise application, and here's a spoiler, we have named it "Waaah" for reasons that will become obvious in a moment. We will go on to describe what AWS is, and what it is not.
We discuss some of the things you should watch out for with AWS, and discuss in general the differences between what AWS offers, and what services Microsoft Azure offers.
In the last part of this chapter, we take a look at the common architecture styles today, and how well they fit into cloud-based offerings such as AWS. We look at issues which are common across them all, and propose a new architecture, that addresses some of these concerns.
Finally, we take a brief look at AWS itself. We look at some of the legal issues, we give a brief technical overview, and pose two questions that you will need to find answers for before you start.