Newsletters
December 2007
Newsletter #32
Greetings AWS Developers,
Our final newsletter of 2007 discusses our partnership with Red Hat to provide RHEL on Amazon EC2. Also, the Amazon Associates Web Service (formerly Amazon ECS) and Amazon FPS have both been busy releasing exciting new features. And of course, congrats to the AWS Start-up Challenge finalists; we’re relying on the community to vote and help us select the winner.
Kathrin Jackson
Amazon Web Services
Red Hat Announces Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) Beta on Amazon EC2
Red Hat has announced the beta availability of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) on Amazon EC2. This collaboration between AWS and Red Hat marries all the capabilities of both RHEL and EC2. Pay as you go for resizable compute capacity in the cloud while accessing the Red Hat Network management service, world class technical support, and over 3,000 certified applications.
Read more about the offering, and sign up for the beta program
Start-Up Challenge Finalist Videos: Vote Today!
Thanks to all who entered the AWS Start-Up Challenge! We are very impressed by the diversity, innovation, and sheer volume of applications. We have selected seven finalists and we would like YOU to help us pick the winner. Check out their videos and vote for your favorite.
You can also win a free ticket to the AWS Start-Up Challenge Award Dinner, to be held on December 6th at the W Hotel, Seattle where we will announce the winner. Enjoy an exciting evening with executives from Amazon, challenge finalists, prominent VCs, and community leaders. To enter, e-mail us, and the first 5 responses will win.
Amazon ECS: New Features, New Name
The Amazon E-Commerce Service (Amazon ECS) has a new name: Amazon Associates Web Service, which better reflects the intended use of the service. Note that the name change does not impact any existing Associates applications. With the name change come some exciting new features:
- Add your Associate’s ID to Amazon’s new RSS feeds and receive sales commissions for selling Amazon’s best selling and newly-released books, DVDs, MP3 downloads, and consumer electronics.
- Through December 31, 2007, earn referral fees of up to 20% when a customer clicks through your web site and purchases an MP3 download from the Amazon MP3 web site.
- Associates are eligible to earn 10% in referral fees on the new Amazon Kindle and Kindle-associated products!
For more information about the Associates Web Service, Kindle integration, and other new features, please see the full announcement.
Amazon FPS: “Pay Now” Widget Released
Amazon Flexible Payments Service is pleased to announce the Amazon Payments “Pay Now” Widget, a new Amazon FPS feature. This is a copy-and-paste HTML widget allowing developers to quickly integrate Amazon Payments into their own web sites. We are excited to offer this to the developer community and encourage you to give it a test drive!
Create a “Pay Now” Widget
New Amazon FPS Applications Launched
Amazon FPS is being used in a variety of ways, integrating Amazon Payments into a wide spectrum of web sites and applications. Take a look at these new FPS-based apps below. If you’re looking for an easy way to integrate Amazon Payments into your web site, also be sure to check out the newly-released “Pay Now” widget, described in the news item directly above this one.
Ooyala
Delivers a high quality interactive video experience with specialized tools for content owners, advertisers and viewers. Ooyala integrated Amazon FPS’s single-use payment functionality, which allows customers to pre-purchase services by the hour.
WeGoAll
Creates rich, interactive web sites and database management tools for fraternities and sororities. WeGoAll integrated Amazon FPS to provide organizations with a donation tool, allowing them to run fundraising campaigns. Additionally, Amazon FPS is used to drive revenue directly into WeGoAll’s Amazon Payments account based on successful donations made.
Foldier
Allows users to organize and retrieve data from different locations on the internet. Data can be tagged, indexed, searched, and shared. Foldier uses Amazon FPS’s subscription functionality to regularly bill customers a fixed amount for storage capacity, which is provided via Amazon S3.
SimplifyThis
Provides business the ability to invoice customers electronically and let customers pay with their Amazon Payments accounts. SimplifyThis leverages Amazon FPS’ marketplace functionality, which allows them to transfer money between two 3rd parties.
Developer Resources
Scalable Media Hosting with Amazon S3
Why slow your web server down by hosting media files? Craig Noeldner and AWS Evangelist Mike Culver show how to configure your domain provider to use Amazon S3 for simple, scalable media hosting.
RightScale Ruby Library to Access Amazon EC2, S3 and SQS
RightScale’s AWS gems provide Ruby interfaces to three key services: Amazon S3, EC2, and SQS. An optional robust HTTP layer retries and clears transient errors.
Ubuntu 7.10 Gutsy Base Install
A clean, base install of Ubuntu 7.10 Gutsy by Eric Hammond.
Solutions Catalog Highlights: What Your Peers Are Building
Anywhere.fm
A web music player that allows you to upload your music, play it anywhere, and discover new music through friends. Built using Amazon S3 and the Amazon Associates Web Service.
Provides a web interface that can be used to store and retrieve data, at any time, from anywhere on the web. It gives any user a highly reliable and fast remote data storage platform. Built using Amazon S3.
Dimdim
The Open Source web conferencing company. With Dimdim you can show presentations, applications and desktops to any other person over the internet. You can chat, show your webcam and talk with others in the meeting. Built using Amazon S3 and EC2.
Not listed in the Solutions Catalog yet? Start with our community co-marketing. Check out the AWS blog for more news about AWS developers and their applications.
Upcoming Events
Don’t forget to let the AWS evangelists know where you’d like them to visit!
Utah Social Media Developers Garage – Salt Lake City, UT
December 7-8, 2007
Jeff Barr
Central California .NET Users Group – Fresno, CA
December 12, 2007
Mike Culver
AWS Goes to India
December 15-18, 2007
Jinesh Varia
Our own Jinesh Varia will be traveling to India in December from December 5th – 18th, visiting cities including Mumbai, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad and Bangalore. Take a peek at the highlights below, or see the full travel plan.
Delhi – December 8 – 11
BarCampDelhi – Two Deep Dive Sessions on Cloud Computing
Chennai – December 11 – 13
AWS User Group in Chennai – Kick-Off Meeting
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