Amazon Web Services launches DNS system

Amazon Web Services on Monday launched a programmable Domain Name Service dubbed Route 53.

With the service, AWS is allowing users to create, change and delete DNS files for any domain. AWS does this using a "hosted zone"," which acts as a phone book of sorts matching names to IP addresses. The idea is to control what server an end user will hit. Developers and business can use Route 53 optimize performance.

In a blog post, AWS explains:

"You could create a new sub-domain for each new customer of a Software as a Service (SaaS) application. DNS queries for information within your domains will be routed to a global network of 16 edge locations tuned for high availability and high performance."

Route 53 will cost $1 a month per zone and 50 cents per million queries for the first billion queries a month. After that it's 25 cents per million queries. Each AWS account can support 100 hosted zones.