Amazon launches cloud app market

Amazon has taken themes from both its own online retail megastore and its app stores, and then applied them to cloud customers, with the introduction of the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Marketplace.

Essentially a one-stop shop for business customers looking to expand in the cloud quickly, customers can add pre-configured software and technical services to their shopping carts with the option of "one-click" deployment to the AWS cloud space.

Terry Hanold, vice president of New Business Initiatives at AWS, boasted in prepared remarks that the AWS Marketplace makes it easier for customers interested in expanding their cloud services, as they can find "a wide variety of AWS ecosystem providers' solutions in one place, where much of the work involved in building and deploying solutions on top of AWS has already been done for you by these solutions providers."

Some of the tools and apps that will be available come from a long list of familiar vendors, including 10gen, IBM, Microsoft and SAP. There will also be free solutions, as well as offerings from open-source providers like WordPress and Drupal.

Amazon touts the billing process, in particular, as a win-win situation. The AWS Marketplace handles the billing logistics, relieving both vendors and software developers of this responsibility. Vendors do have some decisions to make here, such as specifying hourly and monthly charges.

From there, the charges are added to an AWS customer's account, alongside their other AWS services.

Via ZDNet US