Technology

Buy a book and some processor cycles

Amazon is now offering Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2). This goes along with other service offerings. I really like the business strategy statement in the the Amazon 2005 annual report but the service part seems kinda just tacked on:

Our business strategy is to relentlessly focus on customer experience by offering our customers low prices,
convenience, and a wide selection of merchandise, to provide e-commerce solutions and services to other
businesses and to offer web services applications to developers.

(my emphasis)

They offer services but (via Amazon Web Services Licensing Agreement):

AMAZON WILL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY DAMAGES OF ANY KIND ARISING FROM YOUR USE OF, OR INABILITY TO USE, AMAZON WEB SERVICES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, PUNITIVE, CONSEQUENTIAL OR EXEMPLARY DAMAGES, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION LOST DATA, BUSINESS OR ANTICIPATED PROFITS. CERTAIN JURISDICTIONS DO NOT ALLOW LIMITATIONS ON IMPLIED WARRANTIES OR THE EXCLUSION OR LIMITATION OF CERTAIN DAMAGES, AND SO SOME OR ALL OF THE ABOVE DISCLAIMERS, EXCLUSIONS, OR LIMITATIONS MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU.

But don’t worry if you die or get personally injured:

THIS LIMITATION OF LIABILITY DOES NOT APPLY TO LIMIT AMAZON’S LIABILITY FOR DEATH OR PERSONAL INJURY TO THE EXTENT ONLY THAT IT ARISES AS A RESULT OF THE NEGLIGENCE OF AMAZON OR OF ITS EMPLOYEES, AGENTS OR AUTHORIZED REPRESENTATIVES.

Amazon continues to offer cool services to developers at affordable prices. So check out Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2)

One thought on “Buy a book and some processor cycles”

  1. I really like these services but from a business perspective I have some problems.

    “8) If your Application is determined (for any reason or no reason at all, in our sole discretion) to be unsuitable for Amazon Web Services, we may suspend your access to Amazon Web Services or terminate this Agreement at any time, without notice.”

    “12) We reserve the right to terminate your access to Amazon ECS at any time, in our sole discretion.”

    I haven’t read through the entire agreement, so I may be wrong, but how can you base a business on these services? If my business depends on these services the lack of QOS and the ability to terminate without reason is a serious problem.

    Who ever uses these services better layer their apps carefully.

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