AWS free tier now includes Windows server

http://aws.amazon.com/free/

I dunno how many real world web apps can get by with the power of a micro-instance, but if you're the author of a weakly Windows web application, you can now run it on the Amazon cloud for free for a whole year.

750 hours of Amazon EC2 Microsoft Windows Server Micro Instance usage (613 MB of memory and 32-bit and 64-bit platform support) – enough hours to run continuously each month*

Otherwise free tier micro instances are good for running multi-user git servers and other peripheral team servers with low traffic / power needs. It's cheaper than paying github monthly for private repositories and team workflow tools.

@1____1: famished are we?

I am on http://www.dotnet-host.com. The difference between free and $12 is negligible, plus I can renew for another year

18 minutes ago, PaoloM wrote

I am on http://www.dotnet-host.com. The difference between free and $12 is negligible, plus I can renew for another year

AWS isn't hosting for private servers.

It's cloud computing. It would be comparable to Azure, except Azure only gives you 3 months trial and charges you for EBS, ELB and other services Amazon gives you for free for a year.

For example, you can create a snapshot(clone) of your Windows server HDD as an AMI image at any point and time, restart the image you just created as another instance, then use the 12 months of free Elastic Load Balancer to balance the 2.

750 hours of an Elastic Load Balancer plus 15 GB data processing*

Or you can programmatically use AMI snapshots to do weekly roll-ups and restore points which is common.

Nobody with knowledge of modern distributed computing would have made the comparison you just did.

Cloud computing is about letting you create complex distributed computing infrastructure with the ease of a web GUI or API and letting users share distributed computing architectures as libraries or templates. It's not about simple OS specific hosting.

We collectively left that level of computing 3-5 years ago.

So Beer, from the top of your knowledge, explain me how I can't use my dinky web host to do "cloud computing" (as defined by this Amazon/Microsoft offer)?

A. As a professional developer you shouldn't be asking the question.

B. It's the same as having a bar tab vs. paying for each drink. Plus the infrastructure for open bar and sharing cocktail recipes is not there. <- that's as dumbed down as it gets

That's good news for people who care about hosting server stuff on Windows (doesn't seem to describe me).

@1____1: Why do you even bother? Aren't you busy with your search to find a CEO/CTO/CFO/Who Gives a Rat's * What Title He Has as Long as He's Not a Slime Bag and Doesn't Wear Out His Welcome for your awesome start-up?

57 minutes ago, 1____1 wrote

A. As a professional developer you shouldn't be asking the question.

Actually, I do ask it. Because it seems you're under the impression that this offer will give you something more than ONE instance, and that - for all intents and purposes - is pretty much equivalent to have a web server

B. It's the same as having a bar tab vs. paying for each drink. Plus the infrastructure for open bar and sharing cocktail recipes is not there. <- that's as dumbed down as it gets

But you get ONE micro instance. So, what's the difference between getting a bar tab and getting one drink?

@PaoloM:

what is the difference between potential energy and kinetic energy?

But seriously, I already told you. You can make AMIs on EBS and do automated roll ups. It's free for a year. Your argumentative perspective is pointless. This was merely a service to tell people that they no longer have to pay to use small Windows servers. Get off your soapbox and read a book about distributed computing and come back to this post.

Sure, Chris. We all know it was a public service announcement from the bottom of your heart