What is an AWS key, and why is it important?
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AWS (Amazon Web Services) is a cloud computing service. Basically, Amazon bought (and still buys) a bunch of servers, routers, IT equipment, and put that equipment inside data centers (big buildings designed to house IT equipment) all over the world. Then, it rents out that equipment to other companies, who can use it instead of having to buy all that equipment themselves.
AWS is one of the biggest parts of Amazon. Amazon’s current CEO Andy Jassy used to work for the AWS part of Amazon. Much of the internet runs on their equipment.
So AWS clients have their data on Amazon’s servers, but the data is encrypted. Basically, the customer data is inaccessible to anyone but the customer. Because they have the keys. An AWS cryptographic key is a password that’s able to unlock some or all of that data, depending on how the data is encrypted and what AWS services are used.
Its basically a username/password for allowing software you develop access to different services within the Amazon cloud on your behalf. Its just a way for computers to authenticate with each other to make sure the actions they are performing are authorized, whereas a user would enter a username and password to perform the same thing with a client application.
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