Diving deep into Amazon Web Services

From storage to payment, Amazon is dangling an array of low-cost services – but will customers bite?

Amazon's Web Services (AWS) are based on a simple concept: Amazon has built a globe-spanning hardware and software infrastructure that supports the company's Internet business, so why not modularize components of that infrastructure and rent them? It is akin to a large construction company in the business of building interstate highways hiring out its equipment and expertise for jobs such as putting in a side road, paving a supermarket parking lot, repairing a culvert, or just digging a backyard swimming pool.

More specifically, AWS makes various chunks of Amazon's business machinery accessible and usable via REST or SOAP-based Web service calls. Those chunks can be virtual computer systems with X2GHz processors and 2GB of RAM, storage systems capable of holding terabytes of data, databases, payment management systems, order tracking systems, virtual storefront systems, combinations of all the above, and more. And when I say "usable," I really mean "rentable." You pay only for the services (and their accompanying resources) that you use. ... Go to source