Many IT professionals are using Amazon Web Services (AWS) to deploy, scale and manage fully supported Microsoft Windows Server workloads and Windows Server applications such as SharePoint Server, SQL Server, and Microsoft Exchange Server that are fully supported on the AWS Cloud. Cloud computing allows you to reduce costs and increase agility by taking advantage of on-demand resources that require no up-front capital investment and can instantly scale from small test environments to hundreds or even thousands of servers.

Deploy Easily deploy pre-configured virtual machine images, called Amazon Machine Images (AMIs), which enable you to start running fully supported Windows Server virtual machine instances in minutes.

Scale The AWS Cloud also offers instant elasticity, so you can instantly scale up as your workloads grow, or quickly scale down based on application demand. Whether you need one virtual machine or thousands, whether you need them for a few hours or 24/7, you only pay for what you use.

Manage AWS supports popular Windows tools and applications without the need to re-learn or re-architect how you manage your Microsoft environment. By using AWS, your Microsoft applications can leverage the full range of AWS infrastructure services for security, availability, and monitoring. You can access and manage your applications and AWS cloud services through our web service APIs or the AWS Management Console’s simple and intuitive, web-based user interface.

Licensing & Costs

• Learn more about Windows Server and SQL Server instance pricing at http://aws.amazon.com/windows/
• Learn more about the economic benefits of Windows on AWS at http://aws.amazon.com/economics/
• Microsoft License Mobility through Software Assurance - The Microsoft License Mobility through Software Assurance (SA) Program allows Microsoft Volume License customers to move their Windows Server applications licenses to AWS, without paying any additional Microsoft licensing costs. Learn more about the eligibility requirements and how to sign up on the Microsoft License Mobility page on AWS.
• MS License Mobility Webinar: In this webinar you will learn more about License Mobility and how to utilize Windows Server applications to deploy AWS cloud-based solutions. Webinar: Microsoft License Mobility

Amazon Web Services (AWS) enables you to run any compatible Windows Server-based solution using the Microsoft Web Platform, including ASP.NET, ASP.NET AJAX, Silverlight, and Internet Information Server (IIS) on AWS’ high-performance, reliable, cost-effective, cloud computing platform. Because we support the .NET platform, there is no need to re-architect: you can leverage your existing Windows knowledge base, tools, and skills on AWS.

Getting Started Guides

Learn how to launch a Windows Server-based Amazon EC2 instance:
http://docs.amazonwebservices.com/AWSEC2/latest/WindowsGuide/

Learn how to host .NET-based Web applications on Amazon EC2:
http://docs.amazonwebservices.com/gettingstarted/latest/wah/web-app-hosting-intro.html

Learn how to launch a .NET application on AWS Elastic Beanstalk and connect it to Amazon RDS for SQL Server:
http://docs.amazonwebservices.com/elasticbeanstalk/latest/dg/create_deploy_NET.quickstart.html

AWS Developer Tools and Resources

AWS SDK for .NET – AWS has developed this tool to make it easy for Windows developers to build .NET applications that tap into the cost-effective, scalable and reliable AWS Cloud.
http://aws.amazon.com/sdkfornet/

AWS Toolkit for Visual Studio – An extension for Microsoft Visual Studio that makes it easier for developers to develop, debug, and deploy .NET applications using AWS.
http://aws.amazon.com/visualstudio/

Windows & .NET Developer Center – contains sample code, documentation, tools, and additional resources to help you build applications on AWS.
http://aws.amazon.com/net/

Windows High Performance Computing (HPC) Cluster – Set up and run a scalable Windows HPC Cluster using Amazon EC2 Instances. Learn more in the HPC section of the Amazon EC2 Windows Guide.

Microsoft SQL 2012 – Microsoft SQL Server 2012 is the next major release of Microsoft SQL Server and related components. Start using Microsoft SQL Server 2012 on AWS. Learn more at the SQL 2012 page .

AWS and Microsoft Solutions

Windows Server-Based AMI's – Run fully-licensed and supported Microsoft Windows Server-based instances on AWS. Use any of the publicly available pre-configured virtual machine images to reduce the time required to provision and launch Windows Server-based instances. To find the most current images and their contents for the Windows platform, please visit the AMI catalog .

Microsoft BizSpark – Run your BizSpark-related Windows Server and SQL Server products on AWS with no additional Microsoft software licensing costs. Designed for startup companies that want to build on Microsoft technologies. Please visit the BizSpark page for more information.

Web Development with WebMatrix – The WebMatrix Development Server AMI – published by Microsoft, provides a ready to develop, pre-configured server for web developers or ISVs leveraging the Microsoft WebMatrix Platform http://aws.amazon.com/windows/amis/ .

Sharepoint on AWS

Microsoft Sharepoint Server – Run Microsoft SharePoint Server licenses, that you may already own, on Amazon Web Services (AWS) quickly and more cost effectively without any additional Microsoft software licensing costs. Learn more about Sharepoint on AWS .

You can get started with Microsoft SharePoint on AWS using AWS CloudFormation templates. These templates enable application deployment on Amazon EC2 instances running Windows Server 2008 R2, through support for download and installation of MSI packages, creation of setup files, and execution of user commands at boot. To launch an Amazon EC2 instance running Windows and install Microsoft SharePoint using an AWS CloudFormation template, click here: Launch Stack . Please note that standard AWS charges will apply for any resources used.

In about 30 minutes, you will have Amazon EC2 Windows Server 2008 R2 instance in US East (Virginia) region with SharePoint Foundation 2010 installed. AWS CloudFormation will launch the instance with appropriate EC2 security group settings, will create and associate an elastic IP address with the instance, download SharePoint Foundation 2010 installer, and install SharePoint Foundation 2010 as a single server deployment.

This AWS CloudFormation template can be customized to deploy your own licensed version of Microsoft SharePoint software using Microsoft’s License Mobility for Software Assurance program .

Evaluate Costs

Learn more about Windows Server and SQL Server instance pricing at http://aws.amazon.com/windows/

Learn more about the economic benefits of Windows on AWS at http://aws.amazon.com/economics/

Microsoft and Amazon Web Services (AWS) are cooperating to bring you the scalability, elasticity, and flexibility of AWS to fully supported software you know and trust from Microsoft. AWS offers Microsoft partners a choice of cloud-based licensing options, resources, training, and support for a variety of development platforms, which include Windows .NET to build, integrate, manage, or even resell AWS services. Working with AWS on Windows lets you leverage your existing Microsoft knowledge base or expertise and your customer’s investments in Windows technologies on the AWS Cloud.

Join the AWS Partner Network

Learn more about what AWS has to offer Microsoft partners from around the world and how to become an AWS Partner at: http://aws.amazon.com/partners/overview/

Download the AWS Partner paper to learn more about partner opportunities and programs on AWS.

Find an AWS Partner

Find a solution provider among the growing ecosystem of Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) and Systems Integrators (SIs) that are providing services and solutions on cloud computing with AWS at: http://aws.amazon.com/solution-providers/

Partner Success Stories

Datapipe, a member of the Amazon Web Services Partner Network (APN), develops enterprise-ready solutions that combine the flexibility and convenience of AWS with award-winning managed IT services for customers such as Lionsgate and many other Fortune 500 companies.

AWS Partners, Smartronix and Synteractive, develop and offer cloud-based solutions using a variety of AWS infrastructure services, including Microsoft Windows technologies, such as SharePoint Server, on AWS.