Expert Overview
Web services from Amazon.com
This service is run by Amazon.com so it is really unlike anything else out there. They don’t just provide web hosting, but rather they offer a suite of services to help businesses. It seems they are mostly targeting individuals and businesses that sell products on the Amazon platform, but I don’t see any restrictions that limit it only to this type of site.
They have a lot of options to choose from, but they aren’t what you’ll be used to. What this service is mostly ideal for is load balancing and offloading some hosting and processing tasks to Amazon, since they have the infrastructure to handle it. The bottom line is this is really a set of services for web experts and those who need the specifics that they are offering.
Uptime & Reliability
Exceptional Reliability
This is really what people are paying for when they use Amazon web solutions. They have full redundancy, server cloaning, automated backup and many other features that help to ensure their services never go down. They also run the world’s largest online retailer (Amazon.com) so they obviously need to have their sites up at all times.
You can choose from multiple data centers as well. The data centers are located in Sao Paulo, Singapore, Sydney, Tokyo, Virginia, Oregon and California.
Features
Seemingly Endless Features
This company offers tons of different services including scheduled backups, elastic load balancing, many data center locations, a virtual cloud, content delivery and much more. Selecting exactly what you want can be confusing for the average webmaster, however, so make sure you take your time and really understand what it is that they are offering before you sign up.
Their hosting allows a number of different platforms including Joomla, Ruby, WordPress, Drupal, Dot Net and Magento. They also offer both Windows and Linux hosting options, which is always nice.
Support
Expert Support
Not surprisingly, they offer extremely high quality support. Amazon is well known for their customer service, and they have put that stress in their hosting solution as well. You can contact them anytime to get assistance if you need it, and their team of experts will be able to help you every step of the way.
Pricing
Unique pricing options
For the use of their Amazon cloud hosting you actually pay per hour, month or year depending on what you need. The base price starts at $.08 per hour (eight cents per hour). You can also pay monthly, which is $57.60 or annually at $691.20. Obviously this is not your normal web hosting solution, and you will be paying for the extra services that they offer, so make sure you know how to use them before considering this option.
Summary
Great service if you need it
This is one of those options that if you need what they are offering, they are the best in the business. If you don’t need it, however, it should not even be considered. For most people, there is no need to go this route for general hosting.
Pros:
- Run by Amazon.com
- Excellent support
- High end services
Cons:
- Odd pricing structure
- Only really needed by certain types of sites
