8 ms·

AWS Activate

84 points by yarapavan 13y ago

lotsofcows 13y ago
I suppose this is in response to Google pushing it's developer platform. Are they going to match Google's free tier and tendency to drop credits on developers at the drop of a hat?
- ceejayoz 13y ago
  The AWS free tier is pretty generous, and I was randomly gifted a $100 credit a few months back because I accidentally bought a reserved instance in EC2-Classic rather than EC2-VPC and had to file a ticket on it.
smoyer 13y ago
The DNS service (Route 53 - https://aws.amazon.com/route53/ https://aws.amazon.com/route53/) seems to be missing from the free tier ... other than that, it looks like everything you need.
- yarapavan 13y ago
  Remember that these core services are free for only 12 months. After that, it's pay as you go at the usual rates. On the plus side, some of the other services -- DynamoDB, Simple Workflow, Simple Queue Service, Simple Notification Service, Amazon Elastic Transcoder, and CloudWatch -- are still eligible for the free tier after the first year.
- ceejayoz 13y ago
  The $0.50/month Route53 is going to cost a startup would probably just look silly as part of the free tier.
crncosta 13y ago
Looks like the page is down, isn't? Not good for the business be off-line in the announcement day, IMHO.
- thejosh 13y ago
  Works fine here and worked before.
- k-mcgrady 13y ago
  Working fine for me.
thejosh 13y ago
So it's just the free usage tier with a forum tacked on, or if already have funding you get free credits.
- petercooper 13y ago
  And some support.. but yeah, it seems so. The startups who'll get the most benefit here are the ones already getting the most help from accelerators or funds. Just a clever and low risk marketing experiment from AWS, IMHO.
  - yarapavan 13y ago
    + some technical training through labs and web-based mechanisms + access to new startup forum at AWS
    - petercooper 13y ago
      Training on using their platform for their commercial benefit. That should be the default anyway.
benzheren 13y ago
The self-starter package looks just like the free trail package.
LoneWolf 13y ago
What I can't understand is if the plan is free for one year only like the free tier or if there is another limit. Anyone knows?
- Aqua_Geek 13y ago
  I read it as it would last beyond one year, unlike the normal free tier, but I’d like some clarification as well. Edit: Re-reading it (particularly the “AWS Promotional Credit” section at the bottom) leads me to believe that the free tier is exactly the same as the regular free tier and it expires 12 months from sign-up.
WhitneyLand 13y ago
Thanks? I guess...
- WhitneyLand 13y ago
  Is anyone down voting me who doesn't work for Amazon? I really don't see how this offer is anything to get excited about. What am I missing?
  - xauronx 13y ago
    It's a huge company acknowledging start ups and offering them some free services. The free tier is pretty awesome as it is, and they "only" offered a couple more free services on top of that. I don't know, I'm using AWS and I'm not like shitting-my-pants excited but I think it's cool. I'm definitely not going to be a snob about it even if I wasn't using them though. /doesn't work for amazon, but also didn't/can't downvote you
TheRubyist 13y ago
They are like Heroin Dealers, first injection is free ;) just try it.
- rbanffy 13y ago
  It's not like you can't port it over to your own infrastructure if AWS starts getting too costly.
  - berkay 13y ago
    Porting to your infrastructure is not a simple task if you're using AWS services beyond EC2 (DynamoDB, SQS, etc.). And I don't mean this as a criticism of AWS. We're happy users and have no plans to move off. Just don't underestimate the cost of moving.
    - rbanffy 13y ago
      It is expensive, but it's also possible.
alecsmart1 13y ago
The self-starter package is pretty much useless as it is the same as what they have already. The portfolio package seems excellent. I understand they want the cream of the crop, but I wish there was an option to submit your startup for a case-by-case review. We are burning about $1k/mo on AWS and it would be great if we could get some of this funding. It would go a real long way.
- derefr 13y ago
  Seems like a case for an "accelerator" that only exists insofar as it vouches for otherwise-self-sufficient startups and has access to the portfolio package. Kind of like how CDBaby works/worked as a label on iTMS. (Or kind of like libraries getting subscriptions to scientific journals for the benefits of their patrons.)
beaker52 13y ago
Maybe this was pre-seeded by my thoughts of Amazon trying to get startups drug-dependant on their stack but did anyone else see the penis at the beginning of the video?
- riffraff 13y ago
  I didn't, now I cannot unsee it, damn it.
- mseebach 13y ago
  > Amazon trying to get startups drug-dependant on their stack That's a silly (and predictable) criticism. Of course this is Amazon getting their product into the hands of potential large, future customer. Business Development 101. What isn't clear is why that should be considered a bad thing? Startups have little money and little time. If this allows them to get a product out faster and for less money than otherwise, why not? Every little helps. As others have pointed out, they're not locking you in any more than any other external provider would.
rpedela 13y ago
My experience is that the free tier is pretty useless any way. If you want to just test something, then one micro instance is fine. But if you actually want to run a basic web app? One micro instance does not work. The weird thing is that all the other services have decent, useful free tiers that give you enough resources for your beta phase at least. Why is EC2 so low? Maybe make it 750 hours total for any set of instances?
- AsymetricCom 13y ago
  You can certainly run a basic app on a micro instance, unless it has to run in a JVM, maybe.
  - rpedela 13y ago
    Not at reasonable performance or in high availability mode. Like I said it is fine for testing and that is about it.
- SkyMarshal 13y ago
  Depends on what you mean by "basic web app". For example, the Erlang-based CMS Zotonic runs beautifully on a T1.micro, even with PostgreSQL and an Nginx proxy on the same box.
ateevchopra 13y ago
How is the free tier service if i want to host a single launch page for my startup which will take email IDs in a form and send email via the PEAR library ?
biot 13y ago
This looks like Amazon's answer to BizSpark[0] which includes three years of free software, etc. including $60K worth of Azure services for two years[1]. [0] http://www.microsoft.com/bizspark/ http://www.microsoft.com/bizspark/ [1] http://www.microsoft.com/bizspark/plus/default.aspx http://www.microsoft.com/bizspark/plus/default.aspx
mtalantikite 13y ago
SoftLayer has been doing something like this for a while now, $1k/month of free hosting: http://www.softlayer.com/partners/catalyst http://www.softlayer.com/partners/catalyst

84 points by yarapavan 13y ago

I suppose this is in response to Google pushing it's developer platform. Are they going to match Google's free tier and tendency to drop credits on developers at the drop of a hat?

ceejayoz 13y ago
The AWS free tier is pretty generous, and I was randomly gifted a $100 credit a few months back because I accidentally bought a reserved instance in EC2-Classic rather than EC2-VPC and had to file a ticket on it.

smoyer 13y ago

The DNS service (Route 53 - https://aws.amazon.com/route53/ https://aws.amazon.com/route53/) seems to be missing from the free tier ... other than that, it looks like everything you need.

yarapavan 13y ago
Remember that these core services are free for only 12 months. After that, it's pay as you go at the usual rates. On the plus side, some of the other services -- DynamoDB, Simple Workflow, Simple Queue Service, Simple Notification Service, Amazon Elastic Transcoder, and CloudWatch -- are still eligible for the free tier after the first year.
ceejayoz 13y ago
The $0.50/month Route53 is going to cost a startup would probably just look silly as part of the free tier.

crncosta 13y ago

Looks like the page is down, isn't? Not good for the business be off-line in the announcement day, IMHO.

thejosh 13y ago
Works fine here and worked before.
k-mcgrady 13y ago
Working fine for me.

thejosh 13y ago

So it's just the free usage tier with a forum tacked on, or if already have funding you get free credits.

petercooper 13y ago
And some support.. but yeah, it seems so. The startups who'll get the most benefit here are the ones already getting the most help from accelerators or funds. Just a clever and low risk marketing experiment from AWS, IMHO.
- yarapavan 13y ago
  + some technical training through labs and web-based mechanisms + access to new startup forum at AWS
  - petercooper 13y ago
    Training on using their platform for their commercial benefit. That should be the default anyway.

benzheren 13y ago

The self-starter package looks just like the free trail package.

LoneWolf 13y ago

What I can't understand is if the plan is free for one year only like the free tier or if there is another limit. Anyone knows?

Aqua_Geek 13y ago
I read it as it would last beyond one year, unlike the normal free tier, but I’d like some clarification as well. Edit: Re-reading it (particularly the “AWS Promotional Credit” section at the bottom) leads me to believe that the free tier is exactly the same as the regular free tier and it expires 12 months from sign-up.

WhitneyLand 13y ago

Thanks? I guess...

WhitneyLand 13y ago
Is anyone down voting me who doesn't work for Amazon? I really don't see how this offer is anything to get excited about. What am I missing?
- xauronx 13y ago
  It's a huge company acknowledging start ups and offering them some free services. The free tier is pretty awesome as it is, and they "only" offered a couple more free services on top of that. I don't know, I'm using AWS and I'm not like shitting-my-pants excited but I think it's cool. I'm definitely not going to be a snob about it even if I wasn't using them though. /doesn't work for amazon, but also didn't/can't downvote you

TheRubyist 13y ago

They are like Heroin Dealers, first injection is free ;) just try it.

rbanffy 13y ago
It's not like you can't port it over to your own infrastructure if AWS starts getting too costly.
- berkay 13y ago
  Porting to your infrastructure is not a simple task if you're using AWS services beyond EC2 (DynamoDB, SQS, etc.). And I don't mean this as a criticism of AWS. We're happy users and have no plans to move off. Just don't underestimate the cost of moving.
  - rbanffy 13y ago
    It is expensive, but it's also possible.

alecsmart1 13y ago

The self-starter package is pretty much useless as it is the same as what they have already. The portfolio package seems excellent. I understand they want the cream of the crop, but I wish there was an option to submit your startup for a case-by-case review. We are burning about $1k/mo on AWS and it would be great if we could get some of this funding. It would go a real long way.

derefr 13y ago
Seems like a case for an "accelerator" that only exists insofar as it vouches for otherwise-self-sufficient startups and has access to the portfolio package. Kind of like how CDBaby works/worked as a label on iTMS. (Or kind of like libraries getting subscriptions to scientific journals for the benefits of their patrons.)

beaker52 13y ago

Maybe this was pre-seeded by my thoughts of Amazon trying to get startups drug-dependant on their stack but did anyone else see the penis at the beginning of the video?

riffraff 13y ago
I didn't, now I cannot unsee it, damn it.
mseebach 13y ago
> Amazon trying to get startups drug-dependant on their stack That's a silly (and predictable) criticism. Of course this is Amazon getting their product into the hands of potential large, future customer. Business Development 101. What isn't clear is why that should be considered a bad thing? Startups have little money and little time. If this allows them to get a product out faster and for less money than otherwise, why not? Every little helps. As others have pointed out, they're not locking you in any more than any other external provider would.

rpedela 13y ago

My experience is that the free tier is pretty useless any way. If you want to just test something, then one micro instance is fine. But if you actually want to run a basic web app? One micro instance does not work. The weird thing is that all the other services have decent, useful free tiers that give you enough resources for your beta phase at least. Why is EC2 so low? Maybe make it 750 hours total for any set of instances?

AsymetricCom 13y ago
You can certainly run a basic app on a micro instance, unless it has to run in a JVM, maybe.
- rpedela 13y ago
  Not at reasonable performance or in high availability mode. Like I said it is fine for testing and that is about it.
SkyMarshal 13y ago
Depends on what you mean by "basic web app". For example, the Erlang-based CMS Zotonic runs beautifully on a T1.micro, even with PostgreSQL and an Nginx proxy on the same box.

ateevchopra 13y ago

How is the free tier service if i want to host a single launch page for my startup which will take email IDs in a form and send email via the PEAR library ?

biot 13y ago

This looks like Amazon's answer to BizSpark[0] which includes three years of free software, etc. including $60K worth of Azure services for two years[1]. [0] http://www.microsoft.com/bizspark/ http://www.microsoft.com/bizspark/ [1] http://www.microsoft.com/bizspark/plus/default.aspx http://www.microsoft.com/bizspark/plus/default.aspx

mtalantikite 13y ago

SoftLayer has been doing something like this for a while now, $1k/month of free hosting: http://www.softlayer.com/partners/catalyst http://www.softlayer.com/partners/catalyst