Amazon Web Services

The Amazon Web Services (AWS) are a collection of remote computing services (also called web services) offered over the Internet by Amazon.com.

Launched in July 2002, Amazon Web Services provide online services for other web sites or client-side applications. Most of these services are not exposed directly to end users, but instead offer functionality that other developers can use. In June 2007, Amazon claimed that more than 330,000 developers had signed up to use Amazon Web Services. [ [http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=176060&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=1012590&highlight= Amazon.com-News Release ] ]

Amazon Web Services’ offerings are accessed over HTTP, using REST and SOAP protocols. All are billed on usage, with the exact form of usage varying from service to service.

List of AWS services

* Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2), providing scalable virtual private servers using Xen.
* Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3), providing Web Service based storage for applications.
* Amazon Simple Queue Service (SQS), providing a hosted message queue for web applications.
* Amazon Mechanical Turk (Mturk), managing small units of work distributed amongst many people.
* Alexa Web Services, providing traffic data, thumbnails, and other information about web sites.
* Amazon Associates Web Service (AAWS, formerly Amazon E-Commerce Service or ECS), providing access to Amazon's product data and electronic commerce functionality.
* Amazon Historical Pricing, providing access to Amazon's historical sales data from its affiliates.
* Amazon Flexible Payments Service (FPS), currently in limited beta [ [http://www.amazon.com/b?ie=UTF8&node=342430011 Amazon.com: Amazon FPS, Amazon Flexible Payment Service: Amazon Web Services ] ] , provides an interface for micropayments.
* Amazon DevPay, currently in limited beta, is a billing and account management system for applications that developers have built atop Amazon Web Services.
* Amazon SimpleDB, currently in limited beta, allows developers to run queries on structured data. It operates in concert with EC2 and S3 to provide "the core functionality of a database." [http://www.amazon.com/b/?node=342335011 Amazon SimpleDB home page] ]
* Amazon AWS Authentication is an implicit service, the authentication infrastructure used to authenticate access to the various services.
* Amazon Fulfillment Web Service provides a programmatic API for sellers to ship items to and from Amazon using Fulfillment By Amazon.

imilar or related services

IBM has announced Blue Cloud, a service based on Linux, Hadoop, Xen, and PowerVM. [http://smoothspan.wordpress.com/2007/10/22/interview-with-3tera%e2%80%99s-peter-nickolov-and-bert-armijo-part-1/ 3Tera] offers administration tools to manage seamlessly machines based on different data centers operated by Internet hosting services around the world. [http://www.opsource.net/ opsource] Offers a similar service too.

Google App Engine was released in April 2008 and allows web applications to be deployed to Google infrastructure.

References

External links

* [http://aws.amazon.com/ Amazon Web Services] main page
* [http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,2021468,00.asp?kc=EWRSS03119TX1K0000594 Bezos Opens Web-Services Sharing for Profits]
* [http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/06_46/b4009001.htm? Jeff Bezos' Risky Bet]
* [http://www.maluke.com/blog/amazon-elastic-compute-cloud-ec2 Beta tester's overview] of [http://aws.amazon.com/ec2 Amazon EC2] features and possible applications
* [http://www.avangate.com/interviews/mike-culver_8.htm Interview with Mike Culver Amazon Web Service Evangelist]
* [http://uk.intruders.tv/Interview-with-Jeff-Barr-Amazon-Web-Services-evangelist_a113.html Interview with Jeff Barr Amazon Web Services evangelist] Video
* [http://www.fastcompany.tv/video/amazons-challenge-business-turn-off-your-datacenter Interview with Jeff Barr on FastCompany.TV] Video
* [http://www.yoygle.com] Simple example of AWS usage