[Amazon ConnectCloud-based contact center service ][319]
###### Game Development
[Amazon GameLiftAmazon GameLift: Simple, fast, cost-effective dedicated game server hosting. ][320]
[Amazon LumberyardA Free Cross-Platform 3D Game Engine, with Full Source, Integrated with AWS and Twitch ][321]
###### [AWS Marketplace Software__][322]
[INFRASTRUCTURE SOFTWARE (1300+)__][323]
[Application Development][324]
[Application Servers][325]
[Application Stacks][326]
[Big Data ][327]
[Databases & Caching][328]
[Network Infrastructure][329]
[Operating Systems][330]
[Security][331]
[BUSINESS SOFTWARE (845+)__][332]
[Business Intelligence][333]
[Collaboration][334]
[Content Management][335]
[CRM][336]
[eCommerce ][337]
[Education & Research ][338]
[Financial Services][339]
[High Performance Computing][340]
[Media][341]
[Project Management][342]
[Storage & Backup][343]
[DEVELOPER TOOLS (220+)__][344]
[Issue & Bug Tracking][345]
[Monitoring][346]
[Log Analysis][347]
[Source Control][348]
[Testing][349]
###### Resource Center
[Economics CenterFind calculators and other tools to help you lower costs with the AWS Cloud. ][350]
[Security CenterLearn about AWS Cloud security and how to build secure applications. ][351]
[Compliance CenterLearn about the compliance programs on the AWS Cloud and establishing controls ][352]
[Architecture CenterLearn how to build scalable and reliable applications in the AWS Cloud. ][353]
[Knowledge CenterGet answers to frequently asked technical support questions. ][354]
[AWS AnswersGet clear guidance from AWS architects and engineers on common user questions. ][355]
###### Compute
[Amazon EC2][356]
[Amazon ECR][357]
[Amazon ECS][358]
[Amazon Lightsail][359]
[Amazon VPC][360]
[AWS Batch][361]
[AWS Elastic Beanstalk][362]
[AWS Lambda][363]
[Auto Scaling][364]
[Elastic Load Balancing][365]
###### Storage
[Amazon S3][366]
[Amazon EBS][367]
[Amazon EFS][368]
[Amazon Glacier][369]
[AWS Snowball][370]
[AWS Storage Gateway][371]
###### Database
[Amazon RDS][372]
[Amazon DynamoDB][373]
[Amazon ElastiCache][374]
[Amazon Redshift][375]
###### Networking & Content Delivery
[Amazon VPC][360]
[Amazon CloudFront][376]
[AWS Direct Connect][377]
[Elastic Load Balancing][365]
[Amazon Route 53][378]
###### Migration
[AWS Migration Hub][379]
[AWS Database Migration Service][380]
[AWS Server Migration Service][381]
[AWS Schema Conversion Tool][382]
[AWS Import/Export][383]
[AWS Application Discovery Service][384]
###### Developer Tools
[AWS CodeStar][385]
[AWS CodeCommit][386]
[AWS CodeBuild][387]
[AWS CodeDeploy][388]
[AWS CodePipeline][389]
[AWS X-Ray][390]
[AWS Tools & SDKs][391]
###### Management Tools
[Amazon CloudWatch][392]
[AWS CloudFormation][393]
[AWS CloudTrail][394]
[AWS Config][395]
[AWS OpsWorks][396]
[AWS Service Catalog][397]
[AWS Trusted Advisor][398]
[AWS Health][399]
[AWS Management Console][400]
[AWS Command Line Interface][401]
[AWS Tools for PowerShell][402]
###### Security, Identity & Compliance
[AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM)][403]
[Amazon Inspector][404]
[Amazon Macie][405]
[AWS Artifact][406]
[AWS Certificate Manager][407]
[AWS Directory Service][408]
[AWS CloudHSM][409]
[AWS KMS][410]
[AWS Shield][411]
[AWS WAF][411]
###### Analytics
[Amazon Athena][412]
[Amazon EMR][413]
[Amazon CloudSearch][414]
[Amazon Elasticsearch Service][415]
[Amazon Kinesis][416]
[Amazon Redshift][375]
[Amazon QuickSight][417]
[AWS Data Pipeline][418]
[AWS Glue][419]
###### Artificial Intelligence
[Amazon Lex][420]
[Amazon Polly][421]
[Amazon Rekognition][422]
[Amazon Machine Learning][423]
###### Internet of Things
[AWS IoT][424]
###### Game Development
[Amazon GameLift][425]
[Amazon Lumberyard][426]
###### Mobile Services
[AWS Mobile Hub][427]
[Amazon API Gateway][428]
[Amazon Cognito][429]
[AWS Device Farm][430]
[Amazon Mobile Analytics][431]
[Amazon Pinpoint][432]
[AWS Mobile SDK for Android][433]
[AWS Mobile SDK for iOS][434]
[AWS Mobile SDK for Unity][435]
[AWS Mobile SDK for Xamarin][436]
[Amazon Simple Notification Service (SNS)][437]
###### Application Services
[Amazon API Gateway][428]
[Amazon Elastic Transcoder][438]
[Amazon SWF][439]
[AWS Step Functions][440]
###### Messaging
[Amazon Simple Queue Service (SQS)][441]
[Amazon Simple Notification Service (SNS)][437]
[Amazon Pinpoint][432]
[Amazon Simple Email Service (SES)][442]
###### Business Productivity
[Amazon WorkDocs][443]
[Amazon WorkMail][444]
[Amazon Chime ][445]
###### Desktop & App Streaming
[Amazon WorkSpaces][446]
[Amazon WAM][447]
[Amazon AppStream 2.0][448]
###### SDKs & Toolkits
[AWS SDK for C++][449]
[AWS SDK for Go][450]
[AWS SDK for Java][451]
[AWS SDK for JavaScript][452]
[AWS SDK for .NET][453]
[AWS SDK for PHP][454]
[AWS SDK for Python (boto)][455]
[AWS SDK for Ruby][456]
[AWS Toolkit for Eclipse][457]
[AWS Toolkit for Visual Studio][458]
###### Additional Software & Services
[AWS Billing and Cost Management][459]
[AWS Marketplace][460]
[AWS Support][398]
[Alexa Top Sites][461]
[Alexa Web Information Service][462]
[Amazon Silk][463]
[AWS GovCloud (US)][464]
###### AWS General Reference
[Regions and Endpoints][465]
[Security Credentials][466]
[ARNs & Service Namespaces][467]
[Service Limits][468]
[AWS Glossary][469]
###### AWS Management Console
[Resource Groups][470]
[Tag Editor][471]
###### Resources
[AWS Quick Starts][472]
[AWS Whitepapers][473]
[AWS Training & Certification][474]
[AWS Case Studies][475]
[AWS Documentation on Kindle][476]
[AWS Documentation Archive][477]
[ Compute][148]
* [Amazon EC2][478]
* [Amazon EC2 Container Registry][479]
* [Amazon EC2 Container Service][480]
* [Amazon Lightsail][152]
* [Amazon VPC][481]
* [AWS Batch][482]
* [AWS Elastic Beanstalk][483]
* [AWS Lambda][484]
* [Auto Scaling][485]
* [Elastic Load Balancing][486]
[ Storage][164]
* [Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3)][487]
* [Amazon Elastic Block Storage (EBS)][488]
* [Amazon Elastic File System (EFS)][489]
* [Amazon Glacier][490]
* [AWS Storage Gateway][491]
* [AWS Snowball][492]
* [AWS Snowball Edge][493]
* [AWS Snowmobile][494]
[ Database][178]
* [Amazon Aurora][495]
* [Amazon RDS][496]
* [Amazon DynamoDB][497]
* [Amazon DynamoDB Accelerator (DAX)][498]
* [Amazon ElastiCache][499]
* [Amazon Redshift][500]
* [AWS Database Migration Service][501]
[ Migration][191]
* [AWS Migration Hub][502]
* [AWS Application Discovery Service][503]
* [AWS Database Migration Service][501]
* [AWS Schema Conversion Tool][504]
* [AWS Server Migration Service][505]
* [AWS Snowball][492]
* [AWS Snowball Edge][493]
* [AWS Snowmobile][494]
[ Networking & Content Delivery][196]
* [Amazon VPC][481]
* [Amazon CloudFront][506]
* [Amazon Route 53][507]
* [AWS Direct Connect][508]
* [Elastic Load Balancing][486]
[ Developer Tools][206]
* [AWS CodeStar][509]
* [AWS CodeCommit][510]
* [AWS CodeBuild][511]
* [AWS CodeDeploy][512]
* [AWS CodePipeline][513]
* [AWS X-Ray][514]
* [AWS Tools & SDKs][515]
[ Management Tools][225]
* [Amazon CloudWatch][516]
* [Amazon EC2 Systems Manager][517]
* [AWS CloudFormation][518]
* [AWS CloudTrail][519]
* [AWS Config][520]
* [AWS OpsWorks][521]
* [AWS Service Catalog][522]
* [AWS Trusted Advisor][523]
* [AWS Personal Health Dashboard][524]
* [AWS Command Line Interface][525]
* [AWS Management Console][526]
* [AWS Managed Services][527]
[ Artificial Intelligence][258]
* [Amazon Lex][528]
* [Amazon Polly][529]
* [Amazon Rekognition][530]
* [Amazon Machine Learning][531]
* [Apache MXNet on AWS][532]
* [TensorFlow on AWS][533]
* [AWS Deep Learning AMIs][534]
[ Analytics][266]
* [Amazon Athena][535]
* [Amazon EMR][536]
* [Amazon CloudSearch][537]
* [Amazon Elasticsearch Service][538]
* [Amazon Kinesis][539]
* [Amazon Redshift][500]
* [Amazon QuickSight][273]
* [AWS Data Pipeline][540]
* [AWS Glue][541]
[ Security, Identity & Compliance][240]
* [AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM)][542]
* [Amazon Cloud Directory][543]
* [Amazon Inspector][544]
* [Amazon Macie][545]
* [AWS Certificate Manager][546]
* [AWS CloudHSM][547]
* [AWS Directory Service][548]
* [AWS Key Management Service][549]
* [AWS Organizations][550]
* [AWS Shield][551]
* [AWS WAF][552]
* [AWS Artifact][553]
[ Mobile Services][281]
* [AWS Mobile Hub][554]
* [Amazon API Gateway][555]
* [Amazon Cognito][556]
* [Amazon Pinpoint][557]
* [AWS Device Farm][558]
* [AWS Mobile SDK][559]
[ AWS Cost Management][220]
* [AWS Cost Explorer][560]
* [AWS Budgets][561]
* [Reserved Instance Reporting][562]
* [AWS Cost and Usage Report][563]
[ Application Services][292]
* [AWS Step Functions][564]
* [Amazon API Gateway][555]
* [Amazon Elastic Transcoder][565]
[ Messaging][566]
* [Amazon Simple Queue Service (SQS)][567]
* [Amazon Simple Notification Service (SNS)][568]
* [Amazon Pinpoint][557]
* [Amazon Simple Email Service (SES)][569]
[ Business Productivity][304]
* [Amazon Chime][307]
* [Amazon WorkDocs][570]
* [Amazon WorkMail][571]
[ Desktop & App Streaming][308]
* [Amazon WorkSpaces][572]
* [Amazon AppStream 2.0][573]
[ Software][322]
* [AWS Marketplace][574]
[ Internet of Things][575]
* [AWS IoT Platform][576]
* [AWS Greengrass][577]
* [AWS IoT Button][578]
Contact Center
* [Amazon Connect][579]
Game Development
* [Amazon GameLift][580]
* [Amazon Lumberyard][581]
[Click here to return to Amazon Web Services homepage][1]
[AWS & Cloud Computing][33]
[What is Cloud Computing][582]
[Choosing a Cloud Platform][583]
[Events & Webinars][584]
[Customer Success][585]
[Global Infrastructure][586]
[Getting Started][587]
[AWS Free Tier][588]
[What's New][589]
[AWS Blog][590]
[AWS in the News][591]
[Analyst Reports][46]
[Solutions][33]
[Websites & Web Apps][33]
[Websites & Website Hosting][592]
[Development and Test][593]
[Ecommerce Applications][594]
[Mobile Services][595]
[Digital Marketing][596]
[AWS Marketplace][597]
[Backup, Storage, & Archive][33]
[Backup & Recovery][100]
[Data Archive][598]
[Disaster Recovery][599]
[AWS Marketplace][600]
[Big Data & HPC][33]
[Big Data][601]
[High Performance Computing][602]
[Internet of Things][603]
[AWS Marketplace][604]
[Financial Services][605]
[Game Development][33]
[Game Development and Operation][606]
[Amazon for Game Developers][607]
[AWS Marketplace][608]
[Digital Media][33]
[Digital Media][609]
[AWS Marketplace][610]
[Healthcare & Life Sciences][33]
[Healthcare][611]
[Life Sciences][612]
[Genomics][613]
[AWS Marketplace][614]
[Business Apps][33]
[Business Apps][615]
[Oracle][616]
[SAP][617]
[Microsoft][618]
[AWS Marketplace][619]
[Enterprise][620]
[Start-Ups][621]
[Public Sector][622]
[Products][33]
[Compute][33]
[Amazon EC2][623]
[Amazon EC2 Container Registry][624]
[Amazon EC2 Container Service][625]
[Amazon Lightsail][152]
[Amazon VPC][626]
[AWS Batch][627]
[AWS Elastic Beanstalk][628]
[AWS Lambda][629]
[Auto Scaling][630]
[Elastic Load Balancing][631]
[AWS Marketplace][632]
[Storage][33]
[Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3)][633]
[Amazon Elastic Block Storage (EBS)][634]
[Amazon Elastic File System (EFS)][635]
[Amazon Glacier][636]
[AWS Storage Gateway][637]
[AWS Snowball][638]
[AWS Snowball Edge][639]
[AWS Snowmobile][640]
[AWS Marketplace][641]
[Databases][33]
[Amazon Aurora][642]
[Amazon RDS][643]
[Amazon DynamoDB][644]
[Amazon DynamoDB Accelerator (DAX)][645]
[Amazon ElastiCache][646]
[Amazon Redshift][184]
[AWS Database Migration Service][647]
[AWS Marketplace][648]
[Migration][33]
[AWS Migration Hub][649]
[AWS Application Discovery Service][650]
[AWS Database Migration Service][647]
[AWS Schema Conversion Tool][651]
[AWS Server Migration Service][652]
[AWS Snowball][638]
[AWS Snowball Edge][639]
[AWS Snowmobile][640]
[AWS Marketplace][653]
[Networking & Content Delivery][33]
[Amazon VPC][626]
[Amazon CloudFront][654]
[Amazon Route 53][655]
[AWS Direct Connect][656]
[Elastic Load Balancing][631]
[AWS Marketplace][653]
[Developer Tools][33]
[AWS CodeStar][657]
[AWS CodeCommit][658]
[AWS CodeBuild][659]
[AWS CodeDeploy][660]
[AWS CodePipeline][661]
[AWS X-Ray][662]
[AWS Marketplace][663]
[AWS Command Line Interface][664]
[AWS Tools & SDKs][665]
[AWS Cost Management][33]
[AWS Cost Explorer][666]
[AWS Budgets][667]
[Reserved Instance Reporting][668]
[AWS Cost and Usage Report][669]
[Management Tools][33]
[Amazon CloudWatch][670]
[Amazon EC2 Systems Manager][671]
[AWS CloudFormation][672]
[AWS CloudTrail][673]
[AWS Config][674]
[AWS OpsWorks][675]
[AWS Service Catalog][676]
[AWS Trusted Advisor][677]
[AWS Personal Health Dashboard][678]
[AWS Command Line Interface][664]
[AWS Management Console][679]
[AWS Managed Services][680]
[AWS Marketplace][663]
[Security, Identity & Compliance][33]
[AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM)][681]
[Amazon Cloud Directory][242]
[Amazon Inspector][682]
[Amazon Macie][683]
[AWS Certificate Manager][684]
[AWS CloudHSM][685]
[AWS Directory Service][247]
[AWS Key Management Service][686]
[AWS Organizations][687]
[AWS Shield][688]
[AWS WAF][689]
[AWS Artifact][690]
[AWS Marketplace][663]
[Artificial Intelligence][33]
[Amazon Lex][691]
[Amazon Polly][692]
[Amazon Rekognition][693]
[Amazon Machine Learning][694]
[Apache MXNet on AWS][695]
[TensorFlow on AWS][696]
[AWS Deep Learning AMIs][697]
[Analytics][33]
[Amazon Athena][267]
[Amazon EMR][268]
[Amazon CloudSearch][698]
[Amazon Elasticsearch Service][699]
[Amazon Kinesis][700]
[Amazon Redshift][701]
[Amazon QuickSight][702]
[AWS Data Pipeline][703]
[AWS Glue][704]
[AWS Marketplace][705]
[Mobile][33]
[AWS Mobile Hub][706]
[Amazon API Gateway][707]
[Amazon Cognito][708]
[Amazon Pinpoint][709]
[AWS Device Farm][710]
[AWS Mobile SDK][711]
[Application Services][33]
[AWS Step Functions][712]
[Amazon API Gateway][707]
[Amazon Elastic Transcoder][713]
[AWS Marketplace][714]
[Messaging][33]
[Amazon Simple Queue Service (SQS)][715]
[Amazon Simple Notification Service (SNS)][302]
[Amazon Pinpoint][709]
[Amazon Simple Email Service (SES)][716]
[AWS Marketplace][714]
[Business Productivity][33]
[Amazon WorkDocs][717]
[Amazon WorkMail][718]
[Amazon Chime][307]
[Desktop & App Streaming][33]
[Amazon WorkSpaces][719]
[Amazon AppStream 2.0][720]
[Internet of Things][33]
[AWS IoT Platform][721]
[AWS Greengrass][722]
[AWS IoT Button][723]
[Contact Center][33]
[Amazon Connect][724]
[Game Development][33]
[Amazon GameLift][725]
[Amazon Lumberyard][726]
[AWS Marketplace Software][33]
[Infrastructure Software (1300+)][727]
[Business Software (845+)][728]
[Developer Tools (220+)][729]
[Developers][33]
[Get Started][730]
[Tools][731]
[DevOps][732]
[Forums][733]
[Java][734]
[JavaScript][735]
[Mobile][595]
[PHP][736]
[Ruby][737]
[Python][738]
[Windows & .NET][739]
[Training & Resources][33]
[Training][740]
[Self-Paced Labs][741]
[Certification][742]
[Economics Center][743]
[Security Center][744]
[Architecture Center][745]
[Knowledge Center][746]
[Whitepapers][747]
[AWS Answers][748]
[Analyst Reports][749]
[Forums][750]
[AWS YouTube Channel][71]
[Events & Webinars][751]
[Documentation][33]
[Compute][33]
[Amazon EC2][356]
[Amazon ECR][357]
[Amazon ECS][358]
[Amazon Lightsail][359]
[Amazon VPC][360]
[AWS Batch][361]
[AWS Elastic Beanstalk][362]
[AWS Lambda][363]
[Auto Scaling][364]
[Elastic Load Balancing][365]
[Storage][33]
[Amazon S3][366]
[Amazon EBS][367]
[Amazon EFS][368]
[Amazon Glacier][369]
[AWS Snowball][370]
[AWS Storage Gateway][371]
[Databases][33]
[Amazon RDS][372]
[Amazon DynamoDB][373]
[Amazon ElastiCache][374]
[Amazon Redshift][375]
[Networking & Content Delivery][33]
[Amazon VPC][360]
[Amazon CloudFront][376]
[AWS Direct Connect][377]
[Elastic Load Balancing][365]
[Amazon Route 53][378]
[Migration][33]
[AWS Migration Hub][379]
[AWS Database Migration Service][380]
[AWS Server Migration Service][752]
[AWS Schema Conversion Tool][382]
[AWS Import/Export][383]
[AWS Application Discovery Service][384]
[Developer Tools][33]
[AWS CodeStar][385]
[AWS CodeCommit][386]
[AWS CodeBuild][387]
[AWS CodeDeploy][388]
[AWS CodePipeline][389]
[AWS X-Ray][390]
[AWS Tools & SDKs][391]
[Management Tools][33]
[Amazon CloudWatch][392]
[AWS CloudFormation][393]
[AWS CloudTrail][394]
[AWS Config][395]
[AWS OpsWorks][396]
[AWS Service Catalog][397]
[Trusted Advisor][398]
[AWS Health][753]
[AWS Management Console][400]
[AWS Command Line Interface][401]
[AWS Tools for PowerShell][402]
[Security, Identity & Compliance][33]
[AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM)][403]
[Amazon Inspector][404]
[Amazon Macie][405]
[AWS Artifact][406]
[AWS Certificate Manager][407]
[AWS Directory Service][408]
[AWS CloudHSM][409]
[AWS KMS][410]
[AWS Shield][411]
[AWS WAF][411]
[Artificial Intelligence][33]
[Amazon Lex][420]
[Amazon Polly][421]
[AWS Rekognition][422]
[Amazon Machine Learning][423]
[Analytics][33]
[Amazon Athena][412]
[Amazon EMR][413]
[Amazon CloudSearch][414]
[Amazon Elasticsearch Service][415]
[Amazon Kinesis][416]
[Amazon Redshift][375]
[Amazon QuickSight][417]
[AWS Data Pipeline][418]
[AWS Glue][419]
[Internet of Things][33]
[AWS IoT][424]
[Game Development][33]
[Amazon GameLift][425]
[Amazon Lumberyard][426]
[Mobile Services][33]
[AWS Mobile Hub][754]
[Amazon API Gateway][428]
[Amazon Cognito][429]
[AWS Device Farm][430]
[Amazon Mobile Analytics][431]
[Amazon Pinpoint][432]
[AWS Mobile SDK for Android][433]
[AWS Mobile SDK for iOS][434]
[AWS Mobile SDK for Unity][435]
[AWS Mobile SDK for Xamarin][436]
[Amazon SNS][437]
[Application Services][33]
[Amazon API Gateway][428]
[Amazon Elastic Transcoder][438]
[Amazon SWF][439]
[AWS Step Functions][440]
[Messaging][33]
[Amazon Simple Queue Service (SQS)][441]
[Amazon Simple Notification Service (SNS)][437]
[Amazon Pinpoint][432]
[Amazon Simple Email Service (SES)][442]
[Business Productivity][33]
[Amazon WorkDocs][443]
[Amazon WorkMail][444]
[Amazon Chime][445]
[Desktop & App Streaming][33]
[Amazon WorkSpaces][446]
[Amazon WAM][447]
[Amazon AppStream 2.0][448]
[SDKs & Toolkits][33]
[AWS SDK for C++][449]
[AWS SDK for Go][450]
[AWS SDK for Java][451]
[AWS SDK for JavaScript][452]
[AWS SDK for .NET][453]
[AWS SDK for PHP][454]
[AWS SDK for Python (boto)][455]
[AWS SDK for Ruby][456]
[AWS Toolkit for Eclipse][457]
[AWS Toolkit for Visual Studio][458]
[Additional Software & Services][33]
[AWS Billing and Cost Management][459]
[AWS Marketplace][460]
[AWS Support][398]
[Alexa Top Sites][461]
[Alexa Web Information Service][462]
[Amazon Silk][463]
[AWS GovCloud (US)][464]
[AWS General Reference][33]
[Regions and Endpoints][465]
[Security Credentials][466]
[ARNs & Service Namespaces][467]
[Service Limits][468]
[AWS Glossary][469]
[AWS Management Console][33]
[Resource Groups][470]
[Tag Editor][471]
[Resources][33]
[AWS Quick Starts][472]
[AWS Whitepapers][473]
[AWS Training & Certification][474]
[AWS Case Studies][475]
[AWS Documentation on Kindle][476]
[AWS Documentation Archive][755]
[Support][33]
[AWS Support Information][756]
[Support Center][757]
[AWS Trusted Advisor][677]
[Technical FAQs][758]
[Forums][733]
[Service Health Dashboard][759]
[AWS Personal Health Dashboard][678]
[AWS Managed Services][680]
[Contact Us][760]
[Partners][33]
[AWS Partner Network][761]
[Find AWS Partners][762]
[Premier Consulting Partners][763]
[APN Competency Partners][764]
[APN Partner Solutions][765]
[Login to the APN Portal][766]
[Careers][767]
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[Download the Mobile App][770]
[ Blog Home][771] [ Category__][771] [ Edition__][771] [ Follow__][771]
[ News][772] [ Architecture][773] [ Artificial Intelligence][774] [ AWS Partner Network][775] [ Big Data][776] [ Compute][777] [ Database][778] [ Developer][779] [ DevOps][780] [ Game Development][781] [ Internet of Things][782] [ Management Tools][783] [ Mobile][784] [ Networking & Content Delivery][785] [ Open Source][786] [ Public Sector][787] [ SAP][788] [ Security, Identity, & Compliance][789] [ Simple Email Service][790] [ Startups][791]
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## [AWS News Blog][772]
# Amazon EC2 Beta
by [Jeff Barr][802] | on 25 AUG 2006 | in [Announcements][803] | [Permalink][804] | [Share][805]
* * * * * ![Cabos_blog][806] Innovation never takes a break, and neither do I. From the steaming hot beaches of Cabo San Lucas I would like to tell you about the Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud, or Amazon EC2, now open for limited beta testing, with more beta slots to open soon.
Amazon EC2 gives you access to a virtual computing environment. Your applications run on a "virtual CPU", the equivalent of a 1.7 GHz Xeon processor, 1.75 GB of RAM, 160 GB of local disk and 250 Mb/second of network bandwidth. You pay just 10 cents per clock hour (billed to your Amazon Web Services account), and you can get as many virtual CPUs as you need. You can learn more on the [EC2 Detail Page][807]. We built Amazon EC2 using a virtual machine monitor by the name of [Xen][808].
Amazon EC2 works in terms of AMIs, or Amazon Machine Images. Each AMI is a pre-configured boot disk — just a packaged-up operating system stored as an [Amazon S3][809] object. There are web service calls to create images, and to assign them to virtual CPUs to run your application. If your application consists of the usual web server, business logic, and database tiers, you can built distinct AMIs for each tier, and then spawn one or more instances of each type based on the load.
In a previous post, [Sometimes You Need Just a Little…][810], I alluded to the new world of scalable, on-demand web services. In that post I talked about the fact that sometimes a little bit of storage is all you need.
Sometimes you need a lot of processing power, and sometimes you need just a little. Sometimes you need a lot, but you only need it for a limited amount of time. Perhaps you are doing some number crunching, some in-depth text processing, some scientific research, or your end-of-month accounting. Or perhaps you want to experiment with some radical new parallel processing algorithm for a week or two. In any of these situations, acquiring sufficient hardware to accomodate the high-water mark of your usage would definitely not be economical. There are already some interesting examples of this in the [Amazon EC2 Discussion Forums][811]. For example:
* Daniel Drucker [says][812] "We're planning on using it for functional MRI analysis. We have large datasets which, when they're being processed, require a cluster of 15-20 machines… but we only need those machines for a couple hours every few weeks."
* In the same thread, a user by the name of spanglu says "Let's say your back-office inventory app is web-based, but that you're only using it from 7am to 7pm. You can cut your server costs by 50%. Take this to its logical conclusion – only start up an instance when you actually need your inventory app…"
Put another way, time is another interesting axis of scalability.
Before the advent of Amazon EC2, you had to buy or rent sufficient servers to cover your present needs, and you also had to be able to anticipate, forecast, and pay (in advance) for enough hardware, storage, and network bandwidth to accomodate organic growth as well as bursts of traffic brought upon by popular sites such as [Digg][813] or [Slashdot][814]. If you are too generous with your planning, hardware sits idle. Too frugal, and your chance at fame and fortune may very well pass, as thousands of would-be users are greeted with a "site too busy" message.
With Amazon EC2, you don't need to acquire hardware in advance of your needs. Instead, you simply turn up the dial, spawning more virtual CPUs, as your processing needs grow. During the beta you can run up to 20 virtual servers per account, or more by special arrangement.
Returning to our hypothetical three-tier application, Amazon EC2 gives you the ability to control network access on a very fine-grained basis. For example, you can allow the outside world to talk to the web servers, but not to the business logic or to the database server. You can allow the web server to talk to the business logic, and the business logic to talk to the database, and that's it. You also get free, fast-path access to [Amazon S3][809], making S3 a natural place to store your raw data and your results.
Ok, developers, now that you have access to this computing resource, how can you take advantage of it?
For starters I would recommend that you get your hands on a copy of Cal Henderson's new book, [Building Scalable Web Sites.][815] Cal was one of the engineers behind [FlickR][816], and his real-world experience in building a high-traffic site are aptly recounted and generalized in his book.
Second, start looking at higher level packages that will let you decompose immense computational tasks into a form suitable for parallel processing. It is no secret that one of [Google][817]'s tricks is a software framework that they call [MapReduce][818]. This framework simplifies the task of performing similar processing steps on millions or even billons of pieces of data. Doug Cutting's [open source version of MapReduce][819] is probably worth investigating, as is [Starfish][820], an implementation of MapReduce in [Ruby][821].
Third, consider what you can do to help other developers use Amazon EC2. What about building specialized AMIs and then selling them to other developers? Preload an AMI with a popular open source stack (being careful to respect any and all redistribution prohibitions in the software licenses). What about an advanced monitoring system that spools up additional machine images in times of heavy load, then safely winds them down after the load goes away? There are a lot of ways that you can add value on top of what's already there.
Finally, the phrase "leveling the playing field" is used quite often with regard to the full line of Amazon's Web Services, but I think that it is truly appropriate here. I find it worthwhile to imagine that there is a developer (maybe its you) sitting in a dorm room or a spare bedroom somewhere, burning the midnight oil and creating the next killer web site or search algorithm. Without services like Amazon EC2, Amazon SQS, and Amazon S3, you'd need to invest a lot of capital, max out your credit cards, re-mortgage your house, and take a pretty big financial risk just to see if your ideas will work in the real world. With these new services your risk is a lot smaller, but your potential reward is in no way diminished.
That's about all I have to say. You might find Jon Udell's [S3 screencast][822] interesting, and you can always find something entertaining on the requisite [Slashdot thread][823].
— Jeff;
![Jeff Barr][824]
### [Jeff Barr][802]
Jeff Barr is Chief Evangelist for AWS. He started this blog in 2004 and has been writing posts just about non-stop ever since.
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