Why some services are called "AWS XXX" and the others "Amazon XXX"

Question

Some Amazon Web Services are called "AWS XXX" (for example, "AWS Lambda") and others are called "Amazon XXX" (for example, "Amazon RedShift").

Why? Are there any differences?

Answer 1

The pattern is that utility services are prefixed with AWS, while standalone services are prefixed by "Amazon".

Services prefixed with AWS typically use other services, for example:

• AWS Elastic Beanstalk, AWS OpsWorks and AWS CloudFormation launch other services
• AWS Lambda is triggered by other services
• AWS Data Pipeline moves data between other services
• AWS CloudFormation launches other services

Mind you, this doesn't apply to everything. For example, Amazon EBS can only be used with Amazon EC2, yet it has an "Amazon" prefix.

The AWS documentation page is a great reference for determining the official name of a service.